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description: General Frequently asked questions

keywords: desktop, mac, windows, faqs

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title: Frequently asked questions

For information about Docker Desktop system requirements, see:

- [Mac system requirements](../mac/install.md#system-requirements)

- [Windows system requirements](../windows/install.md#system-requirements)

- [Linux system requirements](../linux/install.md#system-requirements)

By default, Docker Desktop is installed at the following location:

- On Mac: `/Applications/Docker.app`

- On Windows: `C:\Program Files\Docker\Docker`

- On Linux: `/opt/docker-desktop`

Docker Desktop remains free for small businesses (fewer than 250 employees AND less than $10 million in annual revenue), personal use, education, and non-commercial open-source projects. It requires a paid subscription for professional use in larger enterprises.

The effective date of these terms is August 31, 2021. When downloading and installing Docker Desktop, you are asked to agree to the [Docker Subscription Service Agreement](https://www.docker.com/legal/docker-subscription-service-agreement){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}.

Read the [Blog](https://www.docker.com/blog/updating-product-subscriptions/){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_" id="dkr_docs_subscription_btl"} and [FAQs](https://www.docker.com/pricing/faq){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_" id="dkr_docs_subscription_btl"} to learn how companies using Docker Desktop may be affected. For information about Docker Desktop licensing, see [Docker Desktop License Agreement](../../subscription/index.md#docker-desktop-license-agreement).

Yes, you can use Docker Desktop offline. However, you

cannot access features that require an active internet

connection. Additionally, any functionality that requires you to sign won't work while using Docker Desktop offline or in air-gapped environments.

This includes:

- The in-app [Quick Start Guide](../mac/install.md#quick-start-guide)

- Pulling or pushing an image to Docker Hub

- [Image Access Management](../../docker-hub/image-access-management.md)

- [Vulnerability scanning](../../docker-hub/vulnerability-scanning.md)

- Viewing remote images in the [Docker Dashboard](../dashboard.md)

- Settting up [Dev Environments](../dev-environments.md)

- Docker build when using [Buildkit](../../develop/develop-images/build_enhancements.md). You can work around this by disabling

BuildKit. Run `DOCKER_BUILDKIT=0 docker build .` to disable BuildKit.

- Deploying an app to the cloud through Compose

[ACI](../../cloud/aci-integration.md) and [ECS](../../cloud/ecs-integration.md)

integrations

- [Kubernetes](../kubernetes.md) (Images are download when you enable Kubernetes for the first time)

- [Check for updates](../mac/install.md#updates) (manual and automatic)

- [In-app diagnostics](../mac/troubleshoot.md#diagnose-and-feedback) (including the [Self-diagnose tool](../mac/troubleshoot.md#self-diagnose-tool))

- Tip of the week

- Sending usage statistics

{% include experimental.md %}

You can find information about diagnosing and troubleshooting common issues in the Troubleshooting topic. See:

- [Mac logs and troubleshooting](../mac/troubleshoot.md)

- [Windows logs and troubleshooting](../windows/troubleshoot.md)

- [Linux logs and troubleshooting](../linux/troubleshoot.md)

If you do not find a solution in troubleshooting, browse the Github repositories or create a new issue:

- [docker/for-mac](https://github.com/docker/for-mac/issues){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"} - - [docker/for-win](https://github.com/docker/for-win/issues){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}

- [docker/for-linux](https://github.com/docker/for-linux/issues){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}

To connect to the remote Engine API, you might need to provide the location of the Engine API for Docker clients and development tools.

Mac and Windows WSL 2 users can connect to the Docker Engine through a Unix socket: `unix:///var/run/docker.sock`.

If you are working with applications like [Apache Maven](https://maven.apache.org/){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}

that expect settings for `DOCKER_HOST` and `DOCKER_CERT_PATH` environment

variables, specify these to connect to Docker instances through Unix sockets.

For example:

$ export DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock

Docker Desktop Windows users can connect to the Docker Engine through a **named pipe**: `npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine`, or **TCP socket** at this URL:

`tcp://localhost:2375`.

For details, see [Docker Engine API](../../engine/api/index.md).

Mac, Linux, and Windows have a changing IP address (or none if you have no network access). On both Mac and Windows, we recommend that you connect to the special DNS name `host.docker.internal`, which resolves to the internal IP address used by the host. This is for development purposes and does not work in a production environment outside of Docker Desktop.

For more information and examples, see how to connect from a container to a service on the host

[on Mac](../mac/networking.md#i-want-to-connect-from-a-container-to-a-service-on-the-host) and [on Windows](../windows/networking.md#i-want-to-connect-from-a-container-to-a-service-on-the-host) or [on Linux](../linux/networking.md#i-want-to-connect-from-a-container-to-a-service-on-the-host).

Unfortunately, it is not possible to pass through a USB device (or a

serial port) to a container as it requires support at the hypervisor level.

Docker Desktop can run inside a Windows 10 VM running on apps like Parallels or

VMware Fusion on a Mac provided that the VM is properly configured. However,

problems and intermittent failures may still occur due to the way these apps

virtualize the hardware. For these reasons, **Docker Desktop is not supported in

nested virtualization scenarios**. It might work in some cases and not in others.

Docker Desktop uses hardware-accelerated graphics by default, which may cause problems for some GPUs. In such cases,

Docker Desktop will launch successfully, but some screens may appear green, distorted,

or have some visual artifacts.

To work around this issue, disable hardware acceleration by creating a `"disableHardwareAcceleration": true` entry in Docker Desktop's `settings.json` file. You can find this file at:

- **Mac**: `~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.docker/settings.json`

- **Windows**: `C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Docker\settings.json`

After updating the `settings.json` file, close and restart Docker Desktop to apply the changes.

No, currently this is unsupported and against terms of use.

Each Docker Desktop release is also delivered as a full installer for new users. The same applies if you have skipped a version, although this doesn't normally happen as updates are applied automatically.

New releases are available roughly monthly, unless there are critical fixes that need to be released sooner.

Previously you had to manage this yourself. Now, it happens automatically as a side effect of all users being on the latest version.

Sometimes we may roll out a new version gradually over a few days. Therefore, if you wait, it will turn up soon. Alternatively, you can select **Check for Updates** from the Docker menu to jump the queue and get the latest version immediately.

Starting with Docker Desktop 3.0.0, Stable and Edge releases are combined into a single, cumulative release stream for all users.

description: Frequently asked questions

keywords: desktop, mac, faqs

title: Frequently asked questions for Mac

`Docker.app` is Docker Desktop on Mac. It bundles the Docker client and Docker Engine. `Docker.app` uses the macOS Hypervisor.framework to run containers.

HyperKit is a hypervisor built on top of the Hypervisor.framework in macOS. It runs entirely in userspace and has no other dependencies.

We use HyperKit to eliminate the need for other VM products, such as Oracle

VirtualBox or VMWare Fusion.

HyperKit is thinner than VirtualBox and VMWare fusion, and the version included is customized for Docker workloads on Mac.

The privileged helper process `com.docker.vmnetd` is started by `launchd` and

runs in the background. The process does not consume any resources unless

Docker.app connects to it, so it's safe to ignore.

description: Frequently asked questions

keywords: desktop, windows, faqs

title: Frequently asked questions for Windows

Yes, you can run VirtualBox along with Docker Desktop if you have enabled the [Windows Hypervisor Platform](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/api/){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"} feature on your machine.

Docker Desktop uses the Windows Hyper-V features. While older Windows versions have Hyper-V, their Hyper-V implementations lack features critical for Docker Desktop to work.

If you are running Windows 10 Home (starting with version 1903), you can install [Docker Desktop for Windows](https://hub.docker.com/editions/community/docker-ce-desktop-windows/){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"} with the [WSL 2 backend](../windows/wsl.md).

No, running Docker Desktop on Windows Server is not supported.

You can install a native Windows binary which allows you to develop and run

Windows containers without Docker Desktop. For more information, see the tutorial about running Windows containers on Windows Server in

[Getting Started with Windows Containers](https://github.com/docker/labs/blob/master/windows/windows-containers/README.md){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}.

Docker Desktop displays the **Docker Desktop - Access Denied** error if a Windows user is not part of the **docker-users** group.

If your admin account is different to your user account, add the **docker-users** group. Run **Computer Management** as an administrator and navigate to **Local Users* and Groups** > **Groups** > **docker-users**.

Right-click to add the user to the group. Log out and log back in for the changes to take effect.

Some anti-virus software may be incompatible with Hyper-V and Windows 10 builds which impact Docker

Desktop. For more information, see [Docker Desktop fails to start when anti-virus software is installed](../windows/troubleshoot.md#docker-desktop-fails-to-start-when-anti-virus-software-is-installed).

Docker Desktop does not enable you to control (`chmod`)

the Unix-style permissions on [shared volumes](../windows/index.md#file-sharing) for

deployed containers, but rather sets permissions to a default value of

[0777](http://permissions-calculator.org/decode/0777/){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}

(`read`, `write`, `execute` permissions for `user` and for

`group`) which is not configurable.

For workarounds and to learn more, see

[Permissions errors on data directories for shared volumes](../windows/troubleshoot.md#permissions-errors-on-data-directories-for-shared-volumes).

Docker Desktop supports two types of symlinks: Windows native symlinks and symlinks created inside a container.

The Windows native symlinks are visible within the containers as symlinks, whereas symlinks created inside a container are represented as [mfsymlinks](https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/UNIX_Extensions#Minshall.2BFrench_symlinks){:target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}. These are regular Windows files with a special metadata. Therefore the symlinks created inside a container appear as symlinks inside the container, but not on the host.

Docker Desktop mounts the Windows host filesystem under `/run/desktop` inside the container running Kubernetes.

See the [Stack Overflow post](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67746843/clear-persistent-volume-from-a-kubernetes-cluster-running-on-docker-desktop/69273405#69273){:target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"} for an example of how to configure a Kubernetes Persistent Volume to represent directories on the host.

- [FAQs](../faqs/general.md) provide answers to frequently asked questions.

When uploading diagnostics to help Docker with investigating issues, the uploaded diagnostics bundle may contain personal data such as usernames and IP addresses. The diagnostics bundles are only accessible to Docker, Inc.

employees who are directly involved in diagnosing Docker Desktop issues.

By default, Docker, Inc. will delete uploaded diagnostics bundles after 30 days. You may also request the removal of a diagnostics bundle by either specifying the diagnostics ID or via your GitHub ID (if the diagnostics ID is mentioned in a GitHub issue). Docker, Inc. will only use the data in the diagnostics bundle to investigate specific user issues but may derive high-level (non personal) metrics such as the rate of issues from it.

For more information, see [Docker Data Processing Agreement](https://www.docker.com/legal/data-processing-agreement){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}.

- [FAQs](../faqs/general.md) provide answers to frequently asked questions.

* [Linux system requirements](../linux/install.md#system-requirements)

When uploading diagnostics to help Docker with investigating issues, the uploaded diagnostics bundle may contain personal data such as usernames and IP addresses. The diagnostics bundles are only accessible to Docker, Inc.

employees who are directly involved in diagnosing Docker Desktop issues.

By default, Docker, Inc. will delete uploaded diagnostics bundles after 30 days. You may also request the removal of a diagnostics bundle by either specifying the diagnostics ID or via your GitHub ID (if the diagnostics ID is mentioned in a GitHub issue). Docker, Inc. will only use the data in the diagnostics bundle to investigate specific user issues but may derive high-level (non personal) metrics such as the rate of issues from it.

For more information, see [Docker Data Processing Agreement](https://www.docker.com/legal/data-processing-agreement){: target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="_"}.