diff --git a/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go b/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
index 59786af539dea..f80de4ccf927f 100644
--- a/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
+++ b/kurtosis-devnet/pkg/build/docker.go
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@ package build
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"context"
-	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"log"
 	"net/url"
 	"os"
 	"os/exec"
+	"runtime"
 	"strings"
 	"text/template"
 
@@ -56,29 +56,35 @@ func (p *defaultDockerProvider) newClient() (dockerClient, error) {
 	opts := []client.Opt{client.FromEnv}
 
 	// Check if default docker socket exists
-	hostURL, err := client.ParseHostURL(client.DefaultDockerHost)
+	hostURL, err := url.Parse(client.DefaultDockerHost)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse default docker host: %w", err)
 	}
 
 	// For unix sockets, check if the socket file exists
-	if hostURL.Scheme == "unix" {
+	unixOS := runtime.GOOS == "linux" || runtime.GOOS == "darwin"
+	if hostURL.Scheme == "unix" && unixOS {
 		if _, err := os.Stat(hostURL.Path); os.IsNotExist(err) {
-			// Default socket doesn't exist, try alternate location. Docker Desktop uses ~/.docker/run/docker.sock
+			// Default socket doesn't exist, try to find an alternate location. Docker Desktop uses a socket in the home directory.
 			homeDir, err := os.UserHomeDir()
 			if err != nil {
 				return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get user home directory: %w", err)
 			}
+			// Try to use the non-privileged socket if available
 			homeSocketPath := fmt.Sprintf("%s/.docker/run/docker.sock", homeDir)
-			if _, err := os.Stat(homeSocketPath); os.IsNotExist(err) {
-				return nil, errors.New("failed to find docker socket")
+			if runtime.GOOS == "linux" {
+				homeSocketPath = fmt.Sprintf("%s/.docker/desktop/docker.sock", homeDir)
 			}
-			socketURL := &url.URL{
-				Scheme: "unix",
-				Path:   homeSocketPath,
+
+			// If that socket exists, make it the default. Otherwise, leave it alone, and hope some environment variable has been set.
+			if _, err := os.Stat(homeSocketPath); err == nil {
+				socketURL := &url.URL{
+					Scheme: "unix",
+					Path:   homeSocketPath,
+				}
+				// prepend the host, so that it can still be overridden by the environment.
+				opts = append([]client.Opt{client.WithHost(socketURL.String())}, opts...)
 			}
-			// prepend the host, so that it can still be overridden by the environment.
-			opts = append([]client.Opt{client.WithHost(socketURL.String())}, opts...)
 		}
 	}