Question 80563 in Docker Question posted in
The official documentation can be found here.

Docker Desktop will not start

I am helping a co-worker who had his Docker Desktop app just stop working about a week ago. When he tries to run it he gets this error:

The system cannot find the file C:Program FilesDockerDockerDocker Desktop.exe

It is really confusing, because that is the exact file we are running! It is there! Even when we run Docker Desktop.exe from a command line in the C:Program FilesDockerDocker folder, it still gives the same error (saying it cannot find the file). But clearly the file is there!

(Note that this is NOT the same error you get when you try to run a non-existant file. That would be 'filenamehere.exe' not recognized as an internal or external command)

Things we have tried:

  1. Reboot
  2. Uninstall and re-install Docker Desktop
  3. Turn off and then turn back on the Docker Windows Service.
  4. Move C:Program FilesDockerDockerResourcesbin to the top of the PATH environment variable.
  5. Add C:Program FilesDockerDocker to the PATH environment variable (and move it to the top).
  6. Checked to see if Docker Desktop.exe is a symlink that has its target missing. (Via dir /al /s)

I just can’t think of anything else that would cause this kind of error.

What can we do to fix Docker Desktop?

Tags:

2

Answers


  1. Chosen as BEST ANSWER
    0

    Turns out it was due to Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL 2) not being excepted from the virus checker. Once that was done, reinstalled and rebooted, it all started working fine.


  2. 0

    One thing that can cause that error is if the EXE relies on a DLL that is no longer there (either directly, or at the end of a long chain of dependencies).

    You can check this by doing a dependency walk on the EXE to see if that’s the case.

    Login or Signup to reply.
Please signup or login to give your own answer.

Back To Top
Search