After running it, one can find that Windows builder doesn’t work.
Docker shows an error:
Get “http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2FdockerDesktopWindowsEngine/_ping”: context deadline exceeded
or
"Builder error
request returned 500 Internal Server Error for API route and version (http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdockerdesktopwindowsengine/_ping “http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2FdockerDesktopWindowsEngine/_ping”), check if the server supports the requested API version
Option to switch to Windows containers disappears from task bar icon menu.
The only working solution is to uninstall Docker Desktop and install it again, which removed my containers. WSL list is empty.
I’ve spent many ours with ChatGPT, as I’m not Docker specialist, trying to solve it and repait, but nothing helped.
I’ve reinstalled my Windows completely, but the issue repeats.
since it is “access is denied”, I would check if your user is in the “docker-users” group. I don’t know why it would be removed after an upgrade. I would understand adding one more group, but not removing. I would still check it.
I remember there is a Windows service which could be stopped and even set to manual. You mentioned “with service not running”, but I am not sure you meant this service. The installatio guide mentions this:
--always-run-service: After installation completes, starts com.docker.service and sets the service startup type to Automatic. This circumvents the need for administrator privileges, which are otherwise necessary to start com.docker.service. com.docker.service is required by Windows containers and Hyper-V backend.
So this com.docker.service is the one I would check.
It is not relevan in your case, but you also mentioned that you were looking for the button to switch to windows containers, so if WSL distribution for Docker is not running, you are probbaly using the HyperV backend for the Linux containers as well, and the docs says that also requires the service.
I’m now reinstalling DD, starting 4.89 and right after installation I’m getting:
#### Privileged helper service is not running
The Privileged helper service is not running. The service runs in the background with SYSTEM privileges. Docker Desktop needs the service to interact with privileged parts of Windows.
Would you like to start the service? Windows will ask you for elevated access.
ad. 1 My ‘‘docker users’’ group consist of my user, my elevated (local admin) user, and SYSTEM user.
Unfortunately, even after deinstalling, reset, installing ,reset, Window builder already inherits the former error:
request returned 500 Internal Server Error for API route and version http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2FdockerDesktopWindowsEngine/_ping, check if the server supports the requested API version
and switching to Windows container is not available.
I had to manually remove all Docker related folders from my and elevated user accounts.
ad. 2. After installation, service com.docker.service is in Automatic startup type.
Can you share the output of the following commands?
docker version
docker info
Remove any private info in the output you see before sharing. I would look for anything suspicious. Please, use code blocks. Euther the </> button in the editor or markdown
```
output here
```
“Privileged helper service is not running” looks normal if it can be started, but “check if the server supports the requested API version” would appear when the client and the server is not the same version and the API version is not supported. On Windows, I could imagine that when another docker client is installed not for Docker Desktop, or when the builder is not using the docker cli and it own client is outdated.
Where did you share the issue first? With the Docker support? Or on GitHub?
Here you go, but bear in mind that currently I got fresh working installation. Now updated to 4.94 and working after restart of the machine.
By waiting for solving I mean my IT and Docker team.
>docker version
Client:
Version: 29.8.2
API version: 1.56
Go version: go1.26.8
Git commit: 7fc2dff
Built: Wed Sep 30 19:35:42 2026
OS/Arch: windows/amd64
Context: desktop-windows
Server: Docker Desktop 4.94.0 (241994)
Engine:
Version: 29.8.2
API version: 1.56 (minimum version 1.40)
Go version: go1.26.8
Git commit: 8af9fe3
Built: Wed Sep 30 19:32:15 2026
OS/Arch: windows/amd64
Experimental: false
Well, it isn’t so straightforward
But, it survived another restart of the machine, so this is a good sign.
The difference I see is that I don’t have Docker set to autorun.
Let’s see what happens after another update.
As “expected”, after update to 4.95.0 and restart, containers disappeared and desktop-windows builder is failing with "http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2FdockerDesktopWindowsEngine/\_ping": context deadline exceeded
as the last time.
I had a Windows laptop this time, so I checked the Docker Desktop version. It was still 4.94, so I tried to update. Windows containers were not enabled in Docker Desktop and the containers Windows feature was not enabled either, so I enabled both.
I started one Windows container and stopped it. Then I updated Docker Desktop. After the update, it started without errors and the container was still there stopped as I left it when I listed all containers, including stopped ones:
docker ps -a
So there must be something on your machine that I don’t have. Containers are not deleted during an update, so if you don’t see the containers, there must be a changing config that makes Docker Desktop read the container list using a different path after the update. I assume you listed stopped containers as I did.
What is still unclear to me, how you can se that error message and still get a correct docker info and docker version output.
One other idea to explain why I didn’t have the issue is that I did not build a Windows image before updating. I am not even sure I had the builders before the update, because Docker Desktop builder settings opened very slowly before showing the builder list.
Can you check what you have in C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop\install-settings.json ?
Mine had two parameters only before switching to Windows containers and now it has only one:
