diff --git a/src/main/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/Client.java b/src/main/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/Client.java
index f79147e36..ab20cf842 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/Client.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/Client.java
@@ -6,7 +6,9 @@ import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.UnixDomainSocketAddress;
 import java.nio.channels.SocketChannel;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
+import java.nio.file.attribute.BasicFileAttributes;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executor;
 
 class Client implements IpcCommunicator {
@@ -20,6 +22,8 @@ class Client implements IpcCommunicator {
 	}
 
 	public static Client create(Path socketPath) throws IOException {
+		// fail with NoSuchFileException early to prevent implicit creation of socket on Windows:
+		socketPath.getFileSystem().provider().checkAccess(socketPath);
 		var address = UnixDomainSocketAddress.of(socketPath);
 		var socketChannel = SocketChannel.open(address);
 		LOG.info("Connected to IPC server on UNIX socket {}", socketPath);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/IpcCommunicatorTest.java b/src/test/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/IpcCommunicatorTest.java
index d5247ff7d..0b4e57f23 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/IpcCommunicatorTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/cryptomator/ipc/IpcCommunicatorTest.java
@@ -1,11 +1,9 @@
 package org.cryptomator.ipc;
 
-import com.google.common.util.concurrent.MoreExecutors;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.function.Executable;
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.io.TempDir;
-import org.mockito.Mockito;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.Path;