Troubleshooting installation

Dockli installs per-user in about two minutes with no admin rights. When something goes wrong, it's almost always one of a handful of causes. Work through the matching section below.

Most install problems have a quick, self-service fix. Find your symptom below, confirm the likely cause, then follow the numbered steps.

How Dockli installs

Dockli is a per-user app. It installs under your own Windows profile at %LocalAppData%\Dockli, needs no administrator rights, and registers a File Explorer integration for your account only (HKCU). Nothing is installed machine-wide, so a fix in one Windows account never affects another.

Symptom: The install finished, but there’s no Dockli entry in the left navigation pane of File Explorer (it should sit below This PC).

Cause: The installer registers the File Explorer shell extension and asks Explorer to refresh so the entry appears immediately. If Explorer didn’t pick up the change — common if an Explorer window was busy or mid-operation during install — the entry won’t show until Explorer is restarted. The integration is registered, it just isn’t being displayed yet.

Fix

Close every open File Explorer window (not just the one you’re looking at).
Open a brand-new File Explorer window (Win + E).
Look below This PC in the left pane for Dockli.

If it’s still missing:

Sign out of Windows and sign back in (or restart the PC). This guarantees Explorer reloads the integration.
Open File Explorer again and check the navigation pane.

Still nothing?

A quick way to force Explorer to reload without signing out is to end and relaunch the explorer.exe process from Task Manager (Task Manager → find “Windows Explorer” → Restart). Then reopen File Explorer.

If Dockli never appears even after a sign-out/sign-in, reinstall (see Reinstalling cleanly). If it still fails, your device management policy may be blocking per-user shell extensions — ask your IT administrator, then email support@dockli.io.

The installer won’t run, or is blocked

Symptom: Double-clicking Dockli-win-Setup.exe does nothing, shows a SmartScreen warning, or is quarantined/removed.

Cause: Windows SmartScreen, an antivirus product, or a corporate application-control policy (such as AppLocker or Windows Defender Application Control) is holding the installer.

Fix

If you see a Windows protected your PC SmartScreen prompt, click More info, then Run anyway. This is safe for the official Dockli installer.
If your antivirus quarantined the file, restore it from quarantine and allow it, or re-download from the download page.
Confirm the file is named exactly Dockli-win-Setup.exe and came from the official download page or the direct link your IT team shared.
If nothing happens at all when you run it, the file may have downloaded incompletely — delete it and download again.

Managed devices

On locked-down corporate devices, application-control policies can block any unapproved executable — including a per-user installer. If Run anyway is greyed out or the installer is removed automatically, your organization must allow Dockli first. See Admin consent and ask your IT administrator to approve the installer, or have them push it for you.

Do I need to install .NET or WebView2 first?

No .NET is needed. The Dockli installer is self-contained — it bundles the .NET 8 runtime, so there is nothing to install separately.

WebView2 is required, but almost always already present. Dockli renders its interface inside the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime, which ships with current Windows 10 and Windows 11. On a supported, up-to-date PC you won’t need to install anything.

If Dockli opens to a blank pane

A blank Dockli pane (no sign-in screen, no interface) usually means WebView2 is missing or damaged.

Install or repair the Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime (download the free “Evergreen Standalone Installer” from Microsoft).
Fully quit Dockli: close all File Explorer windows so the Dockli entry isn’t loaded.
Reopen File Explorer and click Dockli again.

Am I on a supported version of Windows?

Dockli requires Windows 10 or Windows 11, 64-bit (x64). It does not run on 32-bit Windows, Windows on ARM without x64 emulation support, Windows Server (unsupported), or macOS/Linux.

Press Win + Pause (or open Settings → System → About).
Confirm System type reads 64-bit operating system and the edition is Windows 10 or 11.

If you’re on an unsupported edition, Dockli can’t install. Email support@dockli.io if you believe your device meets the requirements but the installer refuses.

Dockli’s version seems stuck / an update didn’t apply

Symptom: You expected a newer version, or a colleague has features you don’t.

Cause: Dockli updates silently in the background roughly every 4 hours while it’s running. If Dockli hasn’t been opened for a while, or was never left running long enough to check, it can lag a release behind. Updates are applied on the next launch after they’re downloaded.

Force an update now

Close every File Explorer window so Dockli fully quits (the background service stops when no Dockli view is open).
Wait a few seconds, then reopen File Explorer and click Dockli.
Reopening lets Dockli pick up and apply the newest downloaded update immediately.

You can't pick a version

Dockli deliberately keeps everyone on a current, supported build — there’s no manual version selector and no separate download to run for updates. If you think an update is failing to download entirely, it may be a network/proxy block; see Performance and network and Endpoints to allowlist.

Where does Dockli install, and how do I remove it?

Dockli installs entirely under your user profile at %LocalAppData%\Dockli (the live build lives in %LocalAppData%\Dockli\current). Each update re-points the File Explorer entry at the new build automatically.

Reinstalling cleanly

Open Settings → Apps → Installed apps.
Find Dockli and choose Uninstall. This unregisters the File Explorer integration and clears Dockli’s local data, including your encrypted sign-in cache.
Restart File Explorer (close all windows) or sign out and back in, so the old integration is fully unloaded.
Download and run Dockli-win-Setup.exe again.

Uninstalling never touches your Microsoft 365 files — they always live in Microsoft 365. Your seat is released back to your organization automatically when you uninstall.

Still stuck?

If none of the above resolves your install problem, email support@dockli.io with your Windows version (Settings → System → About), whether the device is company-managed, and a description of what you see. See also Installing Dockli and Signing in.