Docker Desktop refuses to open with VPN installed

I am new to using Docker Desktop. I have Windows 11 and I reside in China, so I require a VPN on my computer. The issue is that having Astrill VPN installed means I cannot even open Docker Desktop (quitting the VPN, exiting it doesn’t work, only uninstalling).

When I just run docker network ls in the terminal, I get back

failed to connect to the docker API at npipe:////./pipe/dockerDesktopLinuxEngine; check if the path is correct and if the daemon is running: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified.

I’ve tried opening Docker Desktop from the Start Menu, but absolutely nothing happens except for a few instances of “Docker Desktop Backend” on the Task Manager which quickly disappear (again, everything works when I uninstall Astrill VPN).

I need a VPN so I would really like to get this working. If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance!

You can try checking the output of

docker desktop logs

right after trying to start docker desktop, but even if it shows it cannot access a some APIs,you will still need to find out why. I tried two VPNs and could not reproduce the issue, but 20 days ago was another report using the same vpn as you, so maybe that blocks something..