3. Download Ubuntu

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

 Download Ubuntu

WSL supports a variety of Linux distributions including the latest Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. You can find them by opening the Microsoft Store app and searching for Ubuntu.

Choose the distribution you prefer and then select Get.

Which version should I choose?
There are three types of Ubuntu releases published to the Microsoft Store:

  • Ubuntu with a version number e.g. Ubuntu 20.04.x. This will always be 20.04 and upgrades won’t be proposed.

  • Ubuntu without a version number. This is the latest LTS version of Ubuntu after the first point release. At the time of writing, it is Ubuntu 22.04. It will remain Ubuntu 22.04 until the first point release of the next LTS release of Ubuntu, for example 24.04.1 in 2024.

  • Ubuntu Preview is a daily build of the latest development version of Ubuntu. You should install it if you want to live on the edge but not for production workload as it doesn’t receive the same amount of QA as stable releases and may break at any time.

Ubuntu will then install on your machine.

Once installed, you can either launch the application directly from the store or search for Ubuntu in your Windows search bar.

Install Ubuntu from the command line

It is possible to install the same Ubuntu applications available on the Windows Store directly from the command line.

In a Powershell terminal you can run:

wsl --list --online to see all available distros.

You can install a distro using the NAME by running:

wsl --install -d Ubuntu-20.04

Use wsl -l -v to see all your currently installed distros and which version of WSL they are using: