I am attempting to set up Docker Desktop's WSL2 backend on Windows 11 (x64) and am consistently blocked by an error when trying to install the wsl_update_x64.msi Linux kernel update package.

The specific error message is: "This update only applies to machines with the Windows Subsystem for Linux" (followed by "Windows Subsystem for Linux Update Setup Wizard ended prematurely").

This occurs even after rigorously ensuring the following prerequisites are met:

1. Windows Version: Windows 11.
2. Virtualization: Enabled in BIOS/UEFI (confirmed via Task Manager showing "Enabled").
3. WSL Features Enabled (Contradictory Results):
4. I have repeatedly run dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart which reports "The operation completed successfully" (100%).
5. I have also run dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart which also reports "The operation completed successfully" (100%).
6. I have verified their state using Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux | Select-Object State and Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform | Select-Object State, both of which report State : Enabled.
7. I have also tried Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux, VirtualMachinePlatform -NoRestart which reports RestartNeeded : True and Online : True.
8. Crucially, I have performed a full system reboot after each feature enablement attempt.
9. System Health: I have successfully run sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth to rule out core Windows corruption.
10. WSL State: I have run wsl --shutdown and wsl --unregister  for all listed WSL distributions (Ubuntu, docker-desktop, docker-desktop-data) to ensure a completely clean slate before reinstalling.
11. WSL Default Version: wsl --set-default-version 2 runs successfully.

Despite all these successful prerequisite checks and reboots, the wsl_update_x64.msi installer continues to fail with the exact same error, indicating it cannot detect the WSL feature.

This is preventing me from proceeding with Docker Desktop and its WSL2 backend.

What could possibly be preventing the wsl_update_x64.msi installer from detecting the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" feature, when Windows itself reports it as enabled via DISM and PowerShell?

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