# Rancher Desktop v1.20.0 — Rancher Desktop 1.20.0

- Product: Rancher Desktop (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rancher-desktop)
- Vendor: SUSE
- Date: 2025-08-25
- Version: v1.20.0
- Original notes: https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/tag/v1.20.0
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/rancher-desktop/releases/v1.20.0
- Labels: Platforms: Desktop

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Containers dashboard can now display container logs with automatic scrolling and updates
- **added** — Containers dashboard now automatically updates as containers are created, started, stopped or deleted
- **added** — Containers are now grouped by Kubernetes pod, docker-compose deployment, or as Standalone Containers with individual collapse and expand controls
- **added** — New Volumes page to view and delete volumes managed by the container runtime
- **added** — New rdctl reset command with options to delete VM, Kubernetes workloads, cached Kubernetes images, or perform factory reset
- **changed** — VZ emulation mode is now the default on macOS for fresh installs and after factory reset
- **changed** — Default mount type with VZ is now virtiofs, no longer considered experimental
- **changed** — On macOS, system deployment profiles are now checked first in /Library/Managed Preferences before /Library/Preferences
- **changed** — On Linux, system deployment profiles are now also checked in /usr/etc/rancher-desktop before user profile location
- **added** — Diagnostics checks now verify docker context is rancher-desktop and DOCKER_HOST is not set when using moby container engine
- **added** — New diagnostic on Windows to trigger when WSL2 version is too old
- **changed** — Extension catalog updated with latest releases of Epinio, Open WebUI, and SUSE Application Collection
- **changed** — Open WebUI extension no longer binds to a specific version and fetches the latest release on restart
- **changed** — Vue.JS framework upgraded from Vue2 to Vue3
- **fixed** — Code signing for spin has been fixed to allow local application execution
- **deprecated** — rdctl factory-reset command is now deprecated and hidden in favor of rdctl reset

This is the 1.20.0 release of Rancher Desktop, an open source desktop application to bring Kubernetes and container management to macOS, Windows, and Linux.

##### Installers

* [Windows](https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/download/v1.20.0/Rancher.Desktop.Setup.1.20.0.msi)
* [macOS x86_64](https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/download/v1.20.0/Rancher.Desktop-1.20.0.x86_64.dmg)
* [macOS aarch64](https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/download/v1.20.0/Rancher.Desktop-1.20.0.aarch64.dmg)
* [Linux install notes](https://docs.rancherdesktop.io/getting-started/installation#linux)

##### New Contributors

Thank you to our new contributors: @proski, @lavigneer, and @tylercritchlow!

##### Release Notes for 1.20.0

###### What's New

###### Container Logs

Thanks to @tylercritchlow, the Containers dashboard can now display the container logs. The `Logs` command is accessible under the `⋮` menu on the right hand side, so it's a bit hidden. This will automatically scroll to the end of the log and it updates automatically as more logs come in.

###### Container Dashboard Improvements

@tylercritchlow has also made changes to the Containers dashboard itself: it will now automatically update as containers are created, started, stopped or deleted. You no longer need to refresh manually.

As well, containers are now grouped together, either by Kubernetes pod, by `docker-compose` deployment or in the "Standalone Containers" group for everything else. Groups can individually be collapsed and expanded.

###### New Volumes page

Another new feature thanks to @tylercritchlow: On the Volumes page, you can see a list of all volumes managed by the container runtime and, if required, delete volumes.

###### New `rdctl reset` command

@lavigneer has contributed the new `rdctl reset` command. It is a refinement of the `rdctl factory-reset` command, which is still supported, but now deprecated and hidden. It adds the ability to delete the Kubernetes version cache, which was previously only possible from within the GUI.

| Command | Function |
|---|---|
| `rdctl reset --vm` | deletes VM and creates a new with the same settings |
| `rdctl reset --k8s` | deletes deployed Kubernetes workloads |
| `rdctl reset --cache` | deletes cached Kubernetes images |
| `rdctl reset --factory` | deletes VM and shows first-start dialog again |

All options can be combined but some combinations are redundant:

* `--factory` includes `--vm` and `k8s` (but not `--cache`)
* `--vm` includes `--k8s`

###### VZ emulation mode is now the default on macOS

On a fresh install, or after a factory reset, the default emulation mode on macOS is now VZ instead of QEMU.

The default mount type with VZ is now `virtiofs`, which is no longer considered "experimental".

###### Additional locations for system deployment profiles

On macOS, Rancher Desktop will check for system deployment profiles first in `/Library/Managed Preferences`. If no profile is found there, then it looks in the previous default location at `/Library/Preferences`. This allows deploying system profiles using MDM solutions.

On Linux, Rancher Desktop continues to look in `/etc/rancher-desktop` first. But if no profile is found there, it will now also check `/usr/etc/rancher-desktop` for a system profile before looking in the user profile location.

###### Additional Diagnostics

When using the `moby` container engine, Rancher Desktop will now run diagnostics checks to verify that the current docker context is `rancher-desktop` and that `DOCKER_HOST` is not set.

On Windows, there is also a new diagnostic that will trigger when the WSL2 version is too old.

###### Updated extensions

The extension catalog now lists the latest releases of "Epinio", "Open WebUI" and the "SUSE Application Collection".

The "Open WebUI" extension no longer binds to a specific version, but will always attemp

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/rancher-sandbox/rancher-desktop/releases/tag/v1.20.0]_