How to Solve 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/containers/json?all=1”: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified when Running Docker Desktop Application

Introduction

This is an article where the main focus is just to solve an error message as exist in the title of this article. The error message is ‘the docker client must be run with elevated privileges to connect.: Get “http://%2F%2F.%2Fpipe%2Fdocker_engine/v1.24/containers/json?all=1”: open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified’. The following is the appearance of the error message :

C:\Users\Administrator>docker container list --all
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/containers/json?all=1": open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Users\Administrator>docker image list --all
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/images/json?all=1": open //./pipe/docker_engine: The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Users\Administrator>

Solution

Apparently, the solution for the error message in this case is already available in another article. Just as the error message appear as in the introduction part, there is an execution to take for a specific action step. That action step is to run the Docker Desktop application. But the Docker Desktop application fail to start. It gives an error message of ‘Docker Desktop fail to initialize’. The following image is displaying the error message as an attempt to troubleshoot further more :

Like the article in the title of ‘How to Solve Error Message Docker Failed to Initialize’ in this link, the solution for that kind of error message is actually the same. In general, the following is the sequence step for solving the action :

1. Delete the settings.json file which exist in the User folder. For an example in ‘C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Docker’ or any variants path of it. For an example ‘C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Roaming\Docker’, etc.

2. By deleting that file, it will trigger the Docker Desktop Application to start. But it will start by showing once again the EULA (End User License Agreement) or SLA (Software License Agreement).

3. Just click the checkbox to agree to it and it will normally start the Docker Desktop application.

4. If there is another error persist where the Docker Desktop application cannot read the daemon.json file for starting the Docker Desktop application, just choose what to do with it. Either to click the Reset button which is going to reset everything so that the Docker Desktop application will start normally. Or just manually troubleshoot by checking and revising the ‘daemon.json’ file.

5. Restart the PC or laptop if it is necessary for starting the Docker Desktop application normally.