Docker was working fine and suddently starting failing with message open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified

I am running docker desktop for windows on a Windows 10 Pro.

It was working fine yesterday and suddently today when I tried to use docker again I started getting the error message

error during connect: In the default daemon configuration on Windows, the docker client must be run with elevated privileges to connect.: Get “http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdocker_engine/v1.24/version”: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified.

The version I am running:

PS C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker\resources> docker version
error during connect: In the default daemon configuration on Windows, the docker client must be run with elevated privileges to connect.: Get “http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdocker_engine/v1.24/version”: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified.
Client:
Cloud integration: v1.0.29
Version: 20.10.20
API version: 1.41
Go version: go1.18.7
Git commit: 9fdeb9c
Built: Tue Oct 18 18:28:44 2022
OS/Arch: windows/amd64
Context: default
Experimental: true

So far what I have tried to fix this situation:

  • Made sure I was executing with administrator permissions.
  • Started and stoped the deamons with the command “net start com.docker.service” and directly by running dockerd.exe
  • A buncho of other things I saw in different posts that did not seem to help.
    I am now thinking about uninstalling and reinstalling docker but I do not whant to loose the containers I am currently working with.
    Please I need assistance. I am learning to use docker but all I know so far assumes that docker is working…
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In case someone comes across this same error please verify that you have properly installed the Linux Kernel on your machine, I struggled with the same issue until I installed the Linux kernel on this page Manual installation steps for older versions of WSL | Microsoft Learn
Check step 4 where there is a link to download the kernel