2. Install WSL

Owned by Abdelghafour HALIMI, created
Last updated: Feb 27, 2023
2 min read

 Install WSL

WSL can be installed from the command line. Open a powershell prompt as an Administrator (we recommend using Windows Terminal) and run:

wsl --install

This command will enable the features necessary to run WSL and also install the default Ubuntu distribution of Linux available in the Microsoft Store. It is recommended to reboot your machine after this initial installation to complete the setup.

You can also install WSL from the Microsoft Store.

 Installation of WSL from the Microsoft Store

The WSL app is availble to install directly from the Microsoft Store like other Windows applications.

To install the WSL application from the Microsoft Store, open it and search for Windows subsystem.

 

Click on the item Windows Subsystem for Linux to open the corresponding application page.

 

Click on Get to download and install the application.

 

 

Upon installation, you can click on Open, but it will not do much since there is no Linux distribution installed.

However, if you really want to open the WSL application without installing a distribution, you’ll see a nice and short help message that you must follow in order to make something useful with WSL:

You can now proceed with the installation of Ubuntu.