docker desktop wont start- endless screen of loading. tried many ways to resolve but nothing helps
Please share what opening system you use, and what screen you are referring to. We are not looking through your eyes, and don’t know when and where it happens.
Same issue windows 11 (Windows 11, version 25H2, updated today 2026-03 Update (KB5086672) (26200.8117))
Docker Version 4.67.0 (222858) (just updated)
Updated windows today and then Docker later.
looking at windows logs im just seeing:
[2026-04-01T22:49:34.064797300Z] [22:49:34.064797300Z][main.ipc ] (6ff3f549-677) 5ef08f08-engines C->S init GET /ping
[2026-04-01T22:49:35.065158800Z] [22:49:35.065158800Z][main.ipc ][W] (6ff3f549-677) 5ef08f08-engines C<-S ConnectionClosed GET /ping (1.0003615s): Get "http://ipc/ping": context deadline exceeded
[2026-04-01T22:49:35.166122800Z] [22:49:35.166122800Z][main.ipc ] (6ff3f549-678) 5ef08f08-engines C->S init GET /ping
[2026-04-01T22:49:35.444202800Z] {"component":"apiproxy","level":"info","msg":"<< HEAD /_ping Internal Server Error: context deadline exceeded (10.0001679s)","time":"2026-04-02T00:49:35.444202800+02:00"}
the only other thing i could vind is an api version mismatch but none tried a bunch of versions to no avail.
Same issue windows 11 25H2 ARM Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E78100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon™ CPU (3.42 GHz) updated 15/04/26 (KB5083769) (26200.8246)
Endless error. Start screen freezed.
[2026-04-22T13:15:33.188126800Z] [13:15:33.188126800Z][main.ipc ][W] (17d00005-484) 71f4c886-engines C<-S ConnectionClosed GET /ping (1.0004081s): Get "http://ipc/ping": context deadline exceeded
[2026-04-22T13:15:33.188126800Z] [13:15:33.188126800Z][main.enginedependencies] still waiting for init control API to respond after 8m54.0179593s
[2026-04-22T13:15:33.288823100Z] [13:15:33.288823100Z][main.ipc ] (17d00005-485) 71f4c886-engines C->S init GET /ping
Only resolution i found was manually pulling the wsl containers and volumes, removing docker and wsl, re-installing and importing it back in manually resolved it.
Between the latest docker updates and windows updates, eveything seems to be braking so I automated a daily pull just in case I run into this again.
Same issue on 26200.8246 (25H2). AMD x64.
Installed docker desktop from scratch, works with Hyper-V but changing the engine to WSL makes docker desktop fail.
As @appelix1 pointed out no solutions online works for me 
. I even tried downgrading WSL to older versions but no luck.
I followed the note @ [Workaround] Docker Desktop does not start with WSL 2.5.7 · Issue #14804 · docker/for-win · GitHub about downgrading and that did work for me, but I had to go back and older version. I left my notes there. Good luck!