Docker desktop opens remote desktop manager

Hi guys,

I have a strange artifact using docker. Every time I open my Docker Desktop, the remote desktop manager opens the “Syntax für Remotedesktopverbindungen”. When x it, the window just instantly respawns. Which is terribly annoying. Only when i quit docker desktop the Popup will not reopen again. Anyone ever had this problem, why is docker connected to my RDP in the first place?

best regards

That’s an interesting one. I have no really good ideas why that window would appear. You could check the icon that you click on to start Docker Desktop. If something changed the “target” property of it to run Docker Desktop with some special parameters or actualyl run something else that also starts Docker Desktop, that could be a problem.

If you don’t know how to check that, describe how you start Docker Desktop. Where you click.

So I start Docker Desktop via the Windows Start Menu, which is linked to the shortcut here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Docker Desktop which points to the exe here:
C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\Docker Desktop.exe
The RDM Window also opens, when I click on the Docker Desktop.exe directly.
Docker_error_small

That window should open only when you run “mstsc /?” in a Windows terminal.

Can you update Docker Desktop to v4.38 to see if the window disappears?

Please, also share the output of the following command

docker version

Yeah the RDM window opens when i run mstsc /? inside the cmd.
Update did not remove the window.

docker version
Client:
 Version:           27.5.1
 API version:       1.47
 Go version:        go1.22.11
 Git commit:        9f9e405
 Built:             Wed Jan 22 13:41:44 2025
 OS/Arch:           windows/amd64
 Context:           desktop-linux

Server: Docker Desktop 4.38.0 (181591)
 Engine:
  Version:          27.5.1
  API version:      1.47 (minimum version 1.24)
  Go version:       go1.22.11
  Git commit:       4c9b3b0
  Built:            Wed Jan 22 13:41:17 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          1.7.25
  GitCommit:        bcc810d6b9066471b0b6fa75f557a15a1cbf31bb
 runc:
  Version:          1.1.12
  GitCommit:        v1.1.12-0-g51d5e946
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0docker version

I heard that there is an RDP connection in WSL2 which you can disable by setting the guiApplications to false in the .wslconfig

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#main-wsl-settings

That strange window should’t appear, but can you try if disabling the guiApplications makes a difference?

1 Like

Thanks! Using a .wslconfig with

[wsl2]
guiapplications=false

did indeed work!

What is your Windows version? Also what is your WSL version? My guess is that Some parameters that Docker Desktop would use is not compatible with your Windows so it shows the help and closing that window is interpreted as closing a required background service which closes Docker Desktop too…

WSL-Version: 2.2.4.0
Windows-Version: 10.0.19045.5487

The only reason you see this error with Docker Desktop on Windows is that it uses a WSL2 distribution for its backend. Every started WSL2 distro starts a hidden mstsc session, which gets unhidden, as soon as a Linux gui application is started inside the WSL distro. There is nothing Docker Desktop can do at its end to fix this issue in WSL2.

You could try if updating it to wsl 2.4.10 and/or updating the mstsc client makes a difference.

If the problem still remains after updating the components, you could raise an issue in the WSL GitHub repo: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues or leave the gui application feature disabled.