diff --git a/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go b/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
index 59786af539dea..f19f977c0cbc6 100644
--- a/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
+++ b/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ func (p *defaultDockerProvider) newClient() (dockerClient, error) {
 	opts := []client.Opt{client.FromEnv}
 
 	// Check if default docker socket exists
+	// See https://github.com/moby/moby/discussions/46015 :
+	// the ParseHostURL function does not technically support `unix`,
+	// and the non-scheme part just ends up in the `.Host` instead of `.Path`
 	hostURL, err := client.ParseHostURL(client.DefaultDockerHost)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse default docker host: %w", err)
@@ -63,19 +66,22 @@ func (p *defaultDockerProvider) newClient() (dockerClient, error) {
 
 	// For unix sockets, check if the socket file exists
 	if hostURL.Scheme == "unix" {
-		if _, err := os.Stat(hostURL.Path); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		if _, err := os.Stat(hostURL.Host); os.IsNotExist(err) {
 			// Default socket doesn't exist, try alternate location. Docker Desktop uses ~/.docker/run/docker.sock
+			// Docker Desktop uses ~/.docker/run/docker.sock
+			// or also ~/.docker/desktop/docker.sock
 			homeDir, err := os.UserHomeDir()
 			if err != nil {
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get user home directory: %w", err)
 			}
-			homeSocketPath := fmt.Sprintf("%s/.docker/run/docker.sock", homeDir)
-			if _, err := os.Stat(homeSocketPath); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			homeSocketHost := fmt.Sprintf("%s/.docker/run/docker.sock", homeDir)
+			if _, err := os.Stat(homeSocketHost); os.IsNotExist(err) {
 				return nil, errors.New("failed to find docker socket")
 			}
+			log.Printf("WARNING: using implied user docker socket: %q, make sure Kurtosis is running inside of the same docker context!", homeSocketHost)
 			socketURL := &url.URL{
 				Scheme: "unix",
-				Path:   homeSocketPath,
+				Host:   homeSocketHost,
 			}
 			// prepend the host, so that it can still be overridden by the environment.
 			opts = append([]client.Opt{client.WithHost(socketURL.String())}, opts...)