Dev Containers invokves wsl commands despite DOCKER_HOST and no Remote - WSL Extension

[keith-gray-powereng]

I am trying to run a dev container with podman. No matter what I do, vscode always starts a WSL instance to run podman rather than using podman on Windows (yes, I know podman runs in a WSL instance but vscode starts runs it in a completely different instance). I have tried everything I and my friendly LLM can think of to troubleshoot this.

• VSCode Version: 1.100.3
• Local OS Version: Windows 11 Enterprise 10.0.22631 Build 22631
• Remote OS Version: Podman desktop v1.19.1
• Remote Extension/Connection Type: Dev Containers 0.413.0
• Logs:
  • remoteContainers-2025-06-12T03-48-29.684Z.log
  • Here is the start of the dev containers log that shows it starting WSL

[71 ms] Dev Containers 0.413.0 in VS Code 1.100.3 (258e40fedc6cb8edf399a463ce3a9d32e7e1f6f3).
[70 ms] Start: Resolving Remote
[120 ms] Setting up container for folder or workspace: c:\Users\kgray\Software\sas-applications
[120 ms] Host: npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine
[179 ms] Start: Run: wsl -l -v
[455 ms] Start: Run: wsl -d AlmaLinux9 -e /bin/sh -c echo ~
[990 ms] Start: Run: wsl -d AlmaLinux9 -e /bin/sh -c cd '/home/keith' && /bin/sh

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install podman desktop on Windows 11
2. Install vscode with the dev containers plugin
3. Change the Dev > Containers: Docker Path to be podman
4. Change the Dev > Containers: Docker Socket Path to be npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine
5. Set the DOCKER_HOST environment variable in windows to be npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine
6. Install the docker cli with winget install --id Docker.DockerCLI
7. Dev > Containers: Execute in WSL is unchecked
8. Dev > Containers: Execute in WSLDistro is blank
9. terminal.integrated.env.windows = {"DOCKER_HOST": "npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine"}
10. containers.containerClient = "com.microsoft.visualstudio.containers.podman"
11. In a powershell prompt inside of vscode, docker context ls produces ``` NAME DESCRIPTION DOCKER ENDPOINT ERROR default * Current DOCKER_HOST based configuration npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine
    Warning: DOCKER_HOST environment variable overrides the active context. To use a context, either set the global --context flag, or unset DOCKER_HOST environment variable.

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Does this issue occur when you try this locally?: NA
Does this issue occur when you try this locally and all extensions are disabled?: NA

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Please let me know if I can provide any more information.

Thank you in advance.

[chrmarti]

Try disabling:

[keith-gray-powereng]

Try disabling:

Thank you for the suggestion. I just tested it and get the same result, vscode starts working in WSL.

[chrmarti]

Could you try also disabling the WSL service forwarding:

I think both settings need to be disabled to completely prevent the use of WSL.

[keith-gray-powereng]

@chrmarti Thank you sooo much, this finally did it. This issue can be closed. Thank you both.

[53 ms] Dev Containers 0.417.0 in VS Code 1.101.0 (dfaf44141ea9deb3b4096f7cd6d24e00c147a4b1).
[53 ms] Start: Resolving Remote
[92 ms] Setting up container for folder or workspace: c:\Users\kgray\Software\sas-applications
[92 ms] Host: npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine
[138 ms] Start: Check Docker is running
[138 ms] Start: Run: podman version
[822 ms] Client:       Podman Engine
Version:      5.5.0
API Version:  5.5.0
Go Version:   go1.24.2
Git Commit:   0dbcb51477ee7ab8d3b47d30facf71fc38bb0c98
Built:        Wed May 14 10:44:25 2025
OS/Arch:      windows/amd64

Server:       Podman Engine
Version:      5.5.0
API Version:  5.5.0
Go Version:   go1.23.8
Git Commit:   0dbcb51477ee7ab8d3b47d30facf71fc38bb0c98
Built:        Tue May 13 19:00:00 2025
OS/Arch:      linux/amd64

[chrmarti]

Great, thanks!