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Read Carefully!

1. WSL is a system service which requires Admin privileges to install.
2. A System Reboot is required before WSL can be used.

Cheat Sheet

WSL 1 (also known as Bash for Windows) allows you to run most Linux applications directly from within Windows. This is NOT emulation, NOR virtualization, but rather a a Linux syscall wrapper around the Windows Kernel.

This will install WSL 1 ONLY.

Most people want WSL 1 + WSL 2 + Linux.
(WSL 2 is NOT a replacement for WSL 1, it's just another layer of WSL)

See the Full Cheat Sheet at https://webinstall.dev/wsl.

How to Install Linux

Once WSL is installed you can download Linux from the Windows Store. We recommend:

• Ubuntu Linux 20.04
• Alpine WSL

How to Switch to WSL 1

To set WSL 1 as the default:

wsl --set-default-version 1

To set WSL 1 for a specific Linux installation:

1. List all installed Linux versions

   wsl --list
   

2. Set the desired version to WSL 2 with --set-version. For example:

   wsl --set-version Ubuntu-20.04 1
   

How to Install WSL 1 with PowerShell

This installer uses this command to install WSL 1

powershell -Command "Start-Process cmd -Verb RunAs -ArgumentList '/c cd /d %CD% && dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart'"

References

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10