diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 16b5549784a..a9d1fc83dee 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 ### Changed
 - Abstracted and changed database init script functionality to support use of SQL-like scripts with non-JDBC connections. ([\#551](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/551))
 - Added `JdbcDatabaseContainer(Future)` constructor. ([\#543](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/issues/543))
+- Mark DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy as not persistable ([\#593](https://github.com/testcontainers/testcontainers-java/pull/593))
 
 ## [1.6.0] - 2018-01-28
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerClientProviderStrategy.java b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerClientProviderStrategy.java
index 8c89feed2ca..f4dc5b2c4dd 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerClientProviderStrategy.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerClientProviderStrategy.java
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ protected boolean isApplicable() {
         return true;
     }
 
+    protected boolean isPersistable() {
+        return true;
+    }
+
     /**
      * @return highest to lowest priority value
      */
@@ -93,7 +97,10 @@ public static DockerClientProviderStrategy getFirstValidStrategy(List<DockerClie
                                         LOGGER.warn("Can't instantiate a strategy from {}", it, e);
                                         return Stream.empty();
                                     }
-                                }),
+                                })
+                                // Ignore persisted strategy if it's not persistable anymore
+                                .filter(DockerClientProviderStrategy::isPersistable)
+                                .peek(strategy -> LOGGER.info("Loaded {} from ~/.testcontainers.properties, will try it first", strategy.getClass().getName())),
                         strategies
                                 .stream()
                                 .filter(DockerClientProviderStrategy::isApplicable)
@@ -104,7 +111,9 @@ public static DockerClientProviderStrategy getFirstValidStrategy(List<DockerClie
                         strategy.test();
                         LOGGER.info("Found Docker environment with {}", strategy.getDescription());
 
-                        TestcontainersConfiguration.getInstance().updateGlobalConfig("docker.client.strategy", strategy.getClass().getName());
+                        if (strategy.isPersistable()) {
+                            TestcontainersConfiguration.getInstance().updateGlobalConfig("docker.client.strategy", strategy.getClass().getName());
+                        }
 
                         return Stream.of(strategy);
                     } catch (Exception | ExceptionInInitializerError | NoClassDefFoundError e) {
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy.java b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy.java
index b06dc0fa697..f1503477500 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/testcontainers/dockerclient/DockerMachineClientProviderStrategy.java
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ protected boolean isApplicable() {
         return DockerMachineClient.instance().isInstalled();
     }
 
+    @Override
+    protected boolean isPersistable() {
+        return false;
+    }
+
     @Override
     protected int getPriority() {
         return ProxiedUnixSocketClientProviderStrategy.PRIORITY - 10;