Some people may want to use some linux tools or just prefer linux for development, but don’t want to switch away from Windows. WSL provides a virtual linux environment for the user to make full use of linux applications and as of recent even GUI application with Windows 11.

Prerequisits

• Windows 10 version 2004 (build 19041 and higher) or Windows 11

Step 1

Firstly open a command prompt or powershell Windows, by opening the start menu and searching for “PowerShell”, or “CMD” if you prefer, but I prefer PowerShell.

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Step 2

Once the powershell, or cmd, window has opened, WSL can be installed with

wsl --install

This command will install Ubuntu by default, but this behaviour can be customized to install other linux distors. You can see what distros are available with the

wsl --list --online

command, and then install you chosen distro with

wsl --install -d <distro-name>

Step 3

Once the distro has installed, you can launch a session by finding the distro in the start menu, for example ubuntu, you will then be prompted to enter a username and password, this doesn’t have to be the same as you windows credentials, but you might elect to keep them the same for simplicity’s sake.

Conclusion

You now have a working WSL distribution installed and setup on your computer