I have been using DevKinsta on Windows 11 for a few months now, using the downgraded version of Docker Desktop to 4.29.0.
This has worked fine, despite docker desktop periodically updating itself (even if the setting to prevent upgrades is selected), it has been working fine.
However, after a recent re-install of Docker Desktop 4.29.0, the DevKinsta app won’t install. First, I can’t run the application because our work machines don’t allow applications to be installed from Unknown publishers with admin rights. However, I have successfully bypassed that by using an elevated command prompt and running the .exe file directly. Recently, I can’t even install the .exe file that way. The command runs, the system loads for a few seconds, then nothing launches. I’m not sure what logs to provide to help diagnose that but would be happy to provide them.
Update: Restarting my computer a few times as well as re-installing all of my docker containers seems to have worked for now.
I do have two requests if possible:
Can ya’ll please register as a verified publisher with Microsoft? This is a major hinderance to most corporate security policies running large numbers of Windows devices.
I know the issues with 4.30+ docker is complicated and I don’t quite understand it, but if you could work on a fix for the Windows machine performance on the latest versions of Docker Desktop that would be huge. The onboarding experience on Windows to setup DevKinsta is really poor now until this issue is fixed.
Thanks for the detailed note and I’m glad the restart/reinstall got you working again. I understand there are issues with 4.30+ Docker Desktop Version.
DevKinsta feature development is currently paused, but we continue critical SOC-2 fixes and plan to resume development to support the latest Docker Desktop. For now, we do not have an estimated timeframe for when this will be released and the tool remains in maintenance mode only.
If the installer issue returns, please share the DevKinsta logs and we will be happy to take a look. You can refer to this link for more information Troubleshooting - Error Codes - Kinsta® Docs
Last thing I know, becoming a “verified’ publisher” with Microsoft is in progress and we do not have any update yet. If there is, we will keep you posted.
Thank you for your response. I hope you can help send this sentiment up the chain:
Developers are who choose hosting platforms. The online portion of Kinsta has been absolutely fantastic, but I spend the majority of my time developing features locally. If that part is frustrating, it becomes difficult to recommend Kinsta to my colleagues and friends. This is a crucial tool for interfacing with the hosting product and it’s not something that should be in maintenance mode with how many active, blocking bugs still exist.
If I could make a suggestion, please abandon the Docker approach to local environments. We don’t need entire virtual machines to run local envs and it’s the source of most of the issues. LocalWP, MAMP, WAMP, XAMPP, etc are much more reliable for local environments, and they are lighter and easier to maintain. I hope if you are assessing an overhaul of the architecture, just leave Docker out of it.
I really appreciate your response and I hope the tool improves in the future.
Thank you for your suggestion to improve our local WordPress deployment tool, Devkinsta. I understand the importance of having the right tools for your work, and we truly appreciate your feedback. I will ensure that your thoughts are shared with our development team for their consideration in future releases of the app, hopefully.