
Docker is a platform as a service (PaaS) product that uses OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers. The service has both free and premium tiers. The software that hosts the containers is called Docker Engine. Docker takes away repetitive, mundane configuration tasks and is used throughout the development lifecycle for fast, easy, and portable application development. Kindly refer to these related guides: Stopping Zoom App from launching automatically at startup on Mac, How to enable or disable automatic login on macOS: Fixing username greyed out for automatic login, and how to start an application automatically on macOS. Startup apps and programs are some convenient ways to save time and effort of having to start a program manually upon computer startup. However, you might have experienced that when many programs try to start at once, your computer may be extremely very slow! The image below shows Docker automatically starts upon startup.

You must have noticed that the traditional way of removing apps from the startup in Mac does not work here. You may also want to see for yourself by launching the System Preferences.
- Click Users & Groups.
- Click Login Items.
What is the fix?
The Docker Preferences menu allows you to configure your Docker settings such as installation, updates, version channels, Docker Hub login, and more. To do this, Launch the Docker app by clicking on the launchpad and searching for Docker.

This will open the Docker Dashboard as shown below. Click on the gear icon as shown below.

This will open the Preferences window as you can see below. The Docker Preferences menu allows you to configure your Docker settings such as installation, updates, version channels, Docker Hub login, and more.

On the General Menu, untick “Automatically start Docker when you log in” and click on Apply & Restart as shown below.

When next you open your session, Docker will not automatically start Docker Desktop when you open your session.
I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session.