Docker for Windows release notes

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This page contains information about the new features, improvements, known issues, and bug fixes in Docker Desktop releases.

Take a look at the Docker Public Roadmap to see what’s coming next.

Docker Desktop 4.8.1

2022-05-09

New

Released Docker Desktop for Linux.
Beta release of Docker Extensions and Extensions SDK.
Created a Docker Homepage where you can run popular images and discover how to use them.
Compose V2 is now GA

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug that caused the Kubernetes cluster to be deleted when updating Docker Desktop.

Docker Desktop 4.8.0

2022-05-06

New

Released Docker Desktop for Linux.
Beta release of Docker Extensions and Extensions SDK.
Created a Docker Homepage where you can run popular images and discover how to use them.
Compose V2 is now GA

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Introduced reading system proxy. You no longer need to manually configure proxies unless it differs from your OS level proxy.
Fixed a bug that showed Remote Repositories in the Dashboard when running behind a proxy.
Fixed vpnkit establishing and blocking the client connection even if the server is gone. See docker/for-mac#6235
Made improvements on the Volume tab in Docker Desktop:
- Volume size is displayed.
- Columns can be resized, hidden and reordered.
- A columns sort order and hidden state is persisted, even after Docker Desktop restarts.
- Row selection is persisted when switching between tabs, even after Docker Desktop restarts.
Fixed a bug in the Dev Environments tab that did not add a scroll when more items were added to the screen.
Standardised the header title and action in the Dashboard.
Added support for downloading Registry Access Management policies through HTTP proxies.
Fixed an issue related to empty remote repositories when the machine is in sleep mode for an extended period of time.
Fixed a bug where dangling images were not selected in the cleanup process if their name was not marked as “ " but their tag is.
Improved the error message when docker pull fails because an HTTP proxy is required.
Added the ability to clear the search bar easily in Docker Desktop.
Renamed the “Containers / Apps” tab to “Containers”.
Fixed a silent crash in the Docker Desktop installer when C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop is a file or a symlink.
Improved support for the Ctrl+W shortcut.
Fixed a bug where an image with no namespace, for example docker pull <private registry>/image, would be erroneously blocked by Registry Access Management unless access to Docker Hub was enabled in settings.
Fixed a bug that caused the Kubernetes cluster to be deleted when updating Docker Desktop.

Docker Desktop 4.8.0

2022-05-06

New

Released Docker Desktop for Linux.
Beta release of Docker Extensions and Extensions SDK.
Created a Docker Homepage where you can run popular images and discover how to use them.
Compose V2 is now GA

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Introduced reading system proxy. You no longer need to manually configure proxies unless it differs from your OS level proxy.
Fixed a bug that showed Remote Repositories in the Dashboard when running behind a proxy.
Fixed vpnkit establishing and blocking the client connection even if the server is gone. See docker/for-mac#6235
Made improvements on the Volume tab in Docker Desktop:
- Volume size is displayed.
- Columns can be resized, hidden and reordered.
- A columns sort order and hidden state is persisted, even after Docker Desktop restarts.
- Row selection is persisted when switching between tabs, even after Docker Desktop restarts.
Fixed a bug in the Dev Environments tab that did not add a scroll when more items were added to the screen.
Standardised the header title and action in the Dashboard.
Added support for downloading Registry Access Management policies through HTTP proxies.
Fixed an issue related to empty remote repositories when the machine is in sleep mode for an extended period of time.
Fixed a bug where dangling images were not selected in the cleanup process if their name was not marked as “ " but their tag is.
Improved the error message when docker pull fails because an HTTP proxy is required.
Added the ability to clear the search bar easily in Docker Desktop.
Renamed the “Containers / Apps” tab to “Containers”.
Fixed a silent crash in the Docker Desktop installer when C:\ProgramData\DockerDesktop is a file or a symlink.
Improved support for the Ctrl+W shortcut.
Fixed a bug where an image with no namespace, for example docker pull <private registry>/image, would be erroneously blocked by Registry Access Management unless access to Docker Hub was enabled in settings.

Known issues

Currently, if you are running a Kubernetes cluster, it will be deleted when you upgrade to Docker Desktop 4.8.0. We aim to fix this in the next release.

Docker Desktop 4.7.1

2022-04-19

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug where update was failing with a symlink error. Fixes docker/for-win#12650.
Fixed a bug that prevented using Windows container mode. Fixes docker/for-win#12652.
Fixed a crash on the Quick Start Guide final screen.

Docker Desktop 4.7.0

2022-04-07

Security

Update Docker Engine to v20.10.14 to address CVE-2022-24769
Update containerd to v1.5.11 to address CVE-2022-24769

New

IT Administrators can now install Docker Desktop remotely using the command line. For more information, see Install Docker Desktop using the command line.
Add the Docker Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) CLI plugin. The new CLI plugin enables users to generate SBOMs for Docker images. For more information, see Docker SBOM.
Use cri-dockerd for new Kubernetes clusters instead of dockershim. The change is transparent from the user’s point of view and Kubernetes containers run on the Docker Engine as before. cri-dockerd allows Kubernetes to manage Docker containers using the standard Container Runtime Interface, the same interface used to control other container runtimes. For more information, see The Future of Dockershim is cri-dockerd.

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug where the Registry Access Management policy was never refreshed after a failure.
Fixed volume title. Fixes docker/for-win#12616.
Fixed a bug in the WSL 2 integration that caused Docker commands to stop working after restarting Docker Desktop or after switching to Windows containers.
Logs and terminals in the UI now respect your OS theme in light and dark mode.
Easily clean up many volumes at once via multi-select checkboxes.
Improved login feedback.

Docker Desktop 4.6.1

2022-03-22

Upgrades

Buildx 0.8.1

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed diagnostics upload when there is no HTTP proxy set. Fixes docker/for-mac#6234.
Removed a false positive “vm is not running” error from self-diagnose. Fixes docker/for-mac#6233.
Prevented spinning in vpnkit-forwarder filling the logs with error messages.

Docker Desktop 4.6.0

2022-03-14

Security

Fixed CVE-2022-0847, aka “Dirty Pipe”, an issue that could enable attackers to modify files in container images on the host, from inside a container. If using the WSL 2 backend, you must update WSL 2 by running wsl --update.
Fixed CVE-2022-26659, which could allow an attacker to overwrite any administrator writable file on the system during the installation or the update of Docker Desktop.

New

The Docker Dashboard Volume Management feature now offers the ability to efficiently clean up volumes using multi-select checkboxes.

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed uploading diagnostics when an HTTPS proxy is set.
Fixed the UI stuck in starting state forever although Docker Desktop is working fine from the command line.
Fixed missing Docker Desktop systray icon docker/for-win#12573
Made checking for updates from the systray menu open the Software updates settings section.
Fixed Registry Access Management under WSL 2 with latest 5.10.60.1 kernel.
Fixed a UI crash when selecting the containers of a Compose application started from a WSL 2 environment. Fixes docker/for-win#12567.
Fixed copying text from terminal in Quick Start Guide. Fixes docker/for-win#12444.

Docker Desktop 4.5.1

2022-02-15

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed an issue that caused new installations to default to the Hyper-V backend instead of WSL 2.
Fixed a crash in the Docker Dashboard which would make the systray menu disappear.

If you are running Docker Desktop on Windows Home, installing 4.5.1 will switch it back to WSL 2 automatically. If you are running another version of Windows, and you want Docker Desktop to use the WSL 2 backend, you must manually switch by enabling the Use the WSL 2 based engine option in the Settings > General section. Alternatively, you can edit the Docker Desktop settings file located at %APPDATA%\Docker\settings.json and manually switch the value of the wslEngineEnabled field to true.

Docker Desktop 4.5.0

2022-02-10

Security

Fixed CVE-2022-23774 where Docker Desktop allows attackers to move arbitrary files.

New

Docker Desktop 4.5.0 introduces a new version of the Docker menu which creates a consistent user experience across all operating systems. For more information, see the blog post New Docker Menu & Improved Release Highlights with Docker Desktop 4.5
The ‘docker version’ output now displays the version of Docker Desktop installed on the machine.

Upgrades

Amazon ECR Credential Helper v0.6.0

Bug fixes and minor changes

Increased the filesystem watch (inotify) limits by setting fs.inotify.max_user_watches=1048576 and fs.inotify.max_user_instances=8192 in Linux. Fixes docker/for-mac#6071.
Fixed an issue related to compose app started with version 2, but the dashboard only deals with version 1
Fixed an issue where Docker Desktop incorrectly prompted users to sign in after they quit Docker Desktop and start the application.

Known issues

Installing Docker Desktop 4.5.0 from scratch has a bug which defaults Docker Desktop to use the Hyper-V backend instead of WSL 2. This means, Windows Home users will not be able to start Docker Desktop as WSL 2 is the only supported backend. To work around this issue, you must uninstall 4.5.0 from your machine and then download and install Docker Desktop 4.5.1 or a higher version. Alternatively, you can edit the Docker Desktop settings.json file located at %APPDATA%\Docker\settings.json and manually switch the value of the wslEngineEnabled field to true.

Docker Desktop 4.4.4

2022-01-24

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed logging in from WSL 2. Fixes docker/for-win#12500.

Known issues

Clicking Proceed to Desktop after signing in through the browser, sometimes does not bring the Dashboard to the front.
After logging in, when the Dashboard receives focus, it sometimes stays in the foreground even when clicking a background window. As a workaround you need to click the Dashboard before clicking another application window.
The tips of the week show on top of the mandatory login dialog when an organization restriction is enabled via a registry.json file.

Docker Desktop 4.4.3

2022-01-14

Bug fixes and minor changes

Disabled Dashboard shortcuts to prevent capturing them even when minimized or un-focussed. Fixes docker/for-win#12495.

Known issues

Clicking Proceed to Desktop after signing in through the browser, sometimes does not bring the Dashboard to the front.
After logging in, when the Dashboard receives focus, it sometimes stays in the foreground even when clicking a background window. As a workaround you need to click the Dashboard before clicking another application window.
The tips of the week show on top of the mandatory login dialog when an organization restriction is enabled via a registry.json file.

Docker Desktop 4.4.2

2022-01-13

Security

Fixed CVE-2021-45449 that affects users currently on Docker Desktop version 4.3.0 or 4.3.1.

Docker Desktop version 4.3.0 and 4.3.1 has a bug that may log sensitive information (access token or password) on the user’s machine during login. This only affects users if they are on Docker Desktop 4.3.0, 4.3.1 and the user has logged in while on 4.3.0, 4.3.1. Gaining access to this data would require having access to the user’s local files.

New

Easy, Secure sign in with Auth0 and Single Sign-on
- Single Sign-on: Users with a Docker Business subscription can now configure SSO to authenticate using their identity providers (IdPs) to access Docker. For more information, see Single Sign-on.
- Signing in to Docker Desktop now takes you through the browser so that you get all the benefits of auto-filling from password managers.

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Docker Desktop displays an error if registry.json contains more than one organization in the allowedOrgs field. If you are using multiple organizations for different groups of developers, you must provision a separate registry.json file for each group.
Fixed a regression in Compose that reverted the container name separator from - to _. Fixes docker/compose-switch.
Doing a Reset to factory defaults no longer shuts down Docker Desktop.

Known issues

Clicking «Proceed to Desktop» after logging in in the browser, sometimes does not bring the Dashboard to the front.
After logging in, when the Dashboard receives focus, it sometimes stays in the foreground even when clicking a background window. As a workaround you need to click the Dashboard before clicking another application window.
The tips of the week show on top of the mandatory login dialog when an organization restriction is enabled via a registry.json file.
When the Dashboard is open, even if it does not have focus or is minimized, it will still catch keyboard shortcuts (e.g. ctrl-r for Restart)

Docker Desktop 4.3.2

2021-12-21

Security

Fixed CVE-2021-45449 that affects users currently on Docker Desktop version 4.3.0 or 4.3.1.

Upgrades

docker scan v0.14.0

Security

Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228: We have updated the docker scan CLI plugin. This new version of docker scan is able to detect Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228 and Log4j 2 CVE-2021-45046

For more information, read the blog post Apache Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228.

Docker Desktop 4.3.1

2021-12-11

Upgrades

docker scan v0.11.0

Security

Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228: We have updated the docker scan CLI plugin for you. Older versions of docker scan in Docker Desktop 4.3.0 and earlier versions are not able to detect Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228.

For more information, read the blog post Apache Log4j 2 CVE-2021-44228.

Docker Desktop 4.3.0

2021-12-02

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed an issue which prevented users from saving files from a volume using the Save As option in the Volumes UI. Fixes docker/for-win#12407.
Fixed an issue that caused Docker Desktop to fail during startup if the home directory path contains a character used in regular expressions. Fixes docker/for-win#12374.
Added a self-diagnose warning if the host lacks Internet connectivity.
Docker Desktop now uses cgroupv2. If you need to run systemd in a container then:
- Ensure your version of systemd supports cgroupv2. It must be at least systemd 247. Consider upgrading any centos:7 images to centos:8.
- Containers running systemd need the following options: --privileged --cgroupns=host -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:rw.

Known issue

Docker Dashboard incorrectly displays the container memory usage as zero on Hyper-V based machines. You can use the docker stats command on the command line as a workaround to view the actual memory usage. See docker/for-mac#6076.

Deprecation

The following internal DNS names are deprecated and will be removed from a future release: docker-for-desktop, docker-desktop, docker.for.mac.host.internal, docker.for.mac.localhost, docker.for.mac.gateway.internal. You must now use host.docker.internal, vm.docker.internal, and gateway.docker.internal.
Removed: Custom RBAC rules have been removed from Docker Desktop as it gives cluster-admin privileges to all Service Accounts. Fixes docker/for-mac/#4774.

Docker Desktop 4.2.0

2021-11-09

New

Pause/Resume: You can now pause your Docker Desktop session when you are not actively using it and save CPU resources on your machine. For more information, see Pause/Resume.

Ships Docker Public Roadmap#226

Software Updates: The option to turn off automatic check for updates is now available for users on all Docker subscriptions, including Docker Personal and Docker Pro. All update-related settings have been moved to the Software Updates section. For more information, see Software updates.

Ships Docker Public Roadmap#228

Window management: The Docker Dashboard window size and position persists when you close and reopen Docker Desktop.

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Improved: Self-diagnose now also checks for overlap between host IPs and docker networks.
Fixed the position of the indicator that displays the availability of an update on the Docker Dashboard.
Fixed Docker Desktop sometimes hanging when clicking Exit in the fatal error dialog.
Fixed an issue that frequently displayed the Download update popup when an update has been downloaded but hasn’t been applied yet docker/for-win#12188.
Fixed installing a new update killing the application before it has time to shut down.
Fixed: Installation of Docker Desktop now works even with group policies preventing users to start prerequisite services (e.g. LanmanServer) docker/for-win#12291.

Docker Desktop 4.1.1

2021-10-12

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a regression in WSL 2 integrations for some distros (e.g. Arch or Alpine). Fixes docker/for-win#12229
Fixed update notification overlay sometimes getting out of sync between the Settings button and the Software update button in the Dashboard.

Docker Desktop 4.1.0

2021-09-30

New

Software Updates: The Settings tab now includes a new section to help you manage Docker Desktop updates. The Software Updates section notifies you whenever there’s a new update and allows you to download the update or view information on what’s included in the newer version. For more information, see Software Updates.
Compose V2 You can now specify whether to use Docker Compose V2 in the General settings.
Volume Management: Volume management is now available for users on any subscription, including Docker Personal. For more information, see Explore volumes. Ships Docker Public Roadmap#215

Upgrades

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug related to anti-malware software triggering, self-diagnose avoids calling the net.exe utility.
Fixed filesystem corruption in the WSL 2 Linux VM in self-diagnose. This can be caused by microsoft/WSL#5895.
Fixed SeSecurityPrivilege requirement issue. See docker/for-win#12037.
Fixed CLI context switch sync with UI. See docker/for-win#11721.
Added the key vpnKitMaxPortIdleTime to settings.json to allow the idle network connection timeout to be disabled or extended.
Fixed a crash on exit. See docker/for-win#12128.
Fixed a bug where the CLI tools would not be available in WSL 2 distros.
Fixed switching from Linux to Windows containers that was stuck because access rights on panic.log. See for-win#11899.

Known Issue

Docker Desktop may fail to start when upgrading to 4.1.0 on some WSL-based distributions such as ArchWSL. See docker/for-win#12229

Docker Desktop 4.0.1

2021-09-13

Upgrades

Compose V2 RC3
- Compose v2 is now hosted on github.com/docker/compose.
- Fixed go panic on downscale using compose up --scale.
- Fixed a race condition in compose run --rm while capturing exit code.

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug where Docker Desktop would not start correctly with the Hyper-V engine. See docker/for-win#11963
Fixed a bug where copy-paste was not available in the Docker Dashboard.

Docker Desktop 4.0.0

2021-08-31

New

Docker has announced updates and extensions to the product subscriptions to increase productivity, collaboration, and added security for our developers and businesses.

The updated Docker Subscription Service Agreement includes a change to the terms for 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 (Pro, Team, or Business), for as little as $5 a month, for professional use in larger enterprises.
The effective date of these terms is August 31, 2021. There is a grace period until January 31, 2022 for those that will require a paid subscription to use Docker Desktop.
The Docker Pro and Docker Team subscriptions now include commercial use of Docker Desktop.
The existing Docker Free subscription has been renamed Docker Personal.
No changes to Docker Engine or any other upstream open source Docker or Moby project.

To understand how these changes affect you, read the FAQs. For more information, see Docker subscription overview.

Upgrades

Compose V2 RC2
- Fixed project name to be case-insensitive for compose down. See docker/compose-cli#2023
- Fixed non-normalized project name.
- Fixed port merging on partial reference.
Kubernetes 1.21.4

Bug fixes and minor changes

Fixed a bug where the CLI tools would not be available in WSL 2 distros.
Fixed a bug when switching from Linux to Windows containers due to access rights on panic.log. for-win#11899

Docker Desktop for Windows, release notes