Docker Engine will not start on Windows after clean reinstall - "Engine stopped"

Docker Desktop
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1

Hello everyone,

I have an issue where the Docker Desktop engine will not start. The status is permanently stuck on “Engine stopped”.

This happened while trying to run a docker-compose.yml file, which was consistently failing with a no configuration file provided: not found error, even though the file was present.

My Environment:

  • Operating System: Windows 10, Version 22H2 (OS Build 19045.6093)

  • Docker Desktop Version: 4.43.2 (199162)

  • Diagnostics ID: D6931233-BADF-4F9F-8588-918CEA8FABAB

  • docker-compose.yml content:

    YAML

    services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:${N8N_VERSION}
    container_name: n8n_container
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    env_file:
      - .env
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"
    networks:
      - n8n-network

  cloudflared:
    image: cloudflare/cloudflared:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: tunnel --no-autoupdate run --token ${TUNNEL_TOKEN}
    networks:
      - n8n-network

volumes:
  n8n_data: {}

networks:
  n8n-network:
    driver: bridge

Troubleshooting Steps Already Taken:

  • Confirmed the filename is exactly docker-compose.yml.

  • Run all commands from an Administrator PowerShell.

  • Performed a full PC shutdown and reboot.

  • Reset Docker Desktop to factory defaults.

  • Completely uninstalled and reinstalled Docker Desktop.

  • Completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

  • The wsl --update command reports the system is already up-to-date, but Docker reports WSL is too old.

Any help diagnosing this system-level issue would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance

Ohad

2

Please share the output of wsl –version

3

Hi, I apologize for my late reply. I wanted to thank you! The issue was indeed an outdated version of WSL. Running wsl --update and rebooting has fixed the ‘Engine stopped’ problem completely.

4

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