diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows.go b/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows.go
index 33a279e9a1a..b8fc558d2e2 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows.go
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net"
 	"net/url"
+	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
@@ -165,6 +166,11 @@ func IsUnixDomainSocket(filePath string) (bool, error) {
 	// does NOT work in 1809 if the socket file is created within a bind mounted directory by a container
 	// and the FSCTL is issued in the host by the kubelet.
 
+	// If the file does not exist, it cannot be a Unix domain socket.
+	if _, err := os.Stat(filePath); os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		return false, fmt.Errorf("File %s not found. Err: %v", filePath, err)
+	}
+
 	klog.V(6).InfoS("Function IsUnixDomainSocket starts", "filePath", filePath)
 	// As detailed in https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/104584 we cannot rely
 	// on the Unix Domain socket working on the very first try, hence the potential need to
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows_test.go
index d718f6add3d..1450365a4c5 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/util/util_windows_test.go
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ package util
 import (
 	"fmt"
 	"math/rand"
+	"net"
+	"os"
 	"reflect"
 	"runtime"
 	"sync"