Windows Subsystem for Linux Installation Guide for Windows 10

There are two options available for installing Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL):

Simplified install (preview release): wsl —install

The wsl —install simplified install command requires that you join the Windows Insiders Program and install a preview build of Windows 10 (OS build 20262 or higher), but eliminates the need to follow the manual install steps. All you need to do is open a command window with administrator privileges and run wsl —install , after a restart you will be ready to use WSL.

Manual install: Follow the six steps listed below.

The manual install steps for WSL are listed below and can be used to install Linux on any version of Windows 10.

If you run into an issue during the install process, check the Troubleshooting installation section at the bottom of this page.

Simplified Installation for Windows Insiders

The installation process for Windows Subsystem for Linux has been significantly improved in the latest Windows Insiders preview builds of Windows 10, replacing the manual steps below with a single command.

In order to use the wsl —install simplified install command, you must:

• Join the Windows Insiders Program
• Install a preview build of Windows 10 (OS build 20262 or higher).
• Open a command line windows with Administrator privileges

Once those requirements are met, to install WSL:

• Enter this command in the command line you’ve opened in Admin mode: wsl.exe —install
• Restart your machine

The first time you launch a newly installed Linux distribution, a console window will open and you’ll be asked to wait for files to de-compress and be stored on your PC. All future launches should take less than a second.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve successfully installed and set up a Linux distribution that is completely integrated with your Windows operating system!

The —install command performs the following actions:

• Enables the optional WSL and Virtual Machine Platform components
• Downloads and installs the latest Linux kernel
• Sets WSL 2 as the default
• Downloads and installs a Linux distribution (reboot may be required)

By default, the installed Linux distribution will be Ubuntu. This can be changed using wsl —install -d . (Replacing with the name of your desired distribution.) Additional Linux distributions may be added to your machine after the initial install using the wsl —install -d command.

To see a list of available Linux distributions, enter wsl —list —online .

Manual Installation Steps

If you are not on a Windows Insiders build, the features required for WSL will need to be enabled manually following the steps below.

Step 1 — Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux

You must first enable the «Windows Subsystem for Linux» optional feature before installing any Linux distributions on Windows.

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

We recommend now moving on to step #2, updating to WSL 2, but if you wish to only install WSL 1, you can now restart your machine and move on to Step 6 — Install your Linux distribution of choice. To update to WSL 2, wait to restart your machine and move on to the next step.

Step 2 — Check requirements for running WSL 2

To update to WSL 2, you must be running Windows 10.

• For x64 systems: Version 1903 or higher, with Build 18362 or higher.
• For ARM64 systems: Version 2004 or higher, with Build 19041 or higher.
• Builds lower than 18362 do not support WSL 2. Use the Windows Update Assistant to update your version of Windows.

To check your version and build number, select Windows logo key + R, type winver, select OK. Update to the latest Windows version in the Settings menu.

If you are running Windows 10 version 1903 or 1909, open «Settings» from your Windows menu, navigate to «Update & Security» and select «Check for Updates». Your Build number must be 18362.1049+ or 18363.1049+, with the minor build # over .1049. Read more: WSL 2 Support is coming to Windows 10 Versions 1903 and 1909. See the troubleshooting instructions.

Step 3 — Enable Virtual Machine feature

Before installing WSL 2, you must enable the Virtual Machine Platform optional feature. Your machine will require virtualization capabilities to use this feature.

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

Restart your machine to complete the WSL install and update to WSL 2.

Step 4 — Download the Linux kernel update package

Download the latest package:

If you’re using an ARM64 machine, please download the ARM64 package instead. If you’re not sure what kind of machine you have, open Command Prompt or PowerShell and enter: systeminfo | find «System Type» . Caveat: On non-English Windows versions, you might have to modify the search text, for example, in German it would be systeminfo | find «Systemtyp» .

Run the update package downloaded in the previous step. (Double-click to run — you will be prompted for elevated permissions, select ‘yes’ to approve this installation.)

Once the installation is complete, move on to the next step — setting WSL 2 as your default version when installing new Linux distributions. (Skip this step if you want your new Linux installs to be set to WSL 1).

Step 5 — Set WSL 2 as your default version

Open PowerShell and run this command to set WSL 2 as the default version when installing a new Linux distribution:

Step 6 — Install your Linux distribution of choice

Open the Microsoft Store and select your favorite Linux distribution.

The following links will open the Microsoft store page for each distribution:

From the distribution’s page, select «Get».

The first time you launch a newly installed Linux distribution, a console window will open and you’ll be asked to wait for a minute or two for files to de-compress and be stored on your PC. All future launches should take less than a second.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve successfully installed and set up a Linux distribution that is completely integrated with your Windows operating system!

Install Windows Terminal (optional)

Windows Terminal enables multiple tabs (quickly switch between multiple Linux command lines, Windows Command Prompt, PowerShell, Azure CLI, etc), create custom key bindings (shortcut keys for opening or closing tabs, copy+paste, etc.), use the search feature, and custom themes (color schemes, font styles and sizes, background image/blur/transparency). Learn more.

Set your distribution version to WSL 1 or WSL 2

You can check the WSL version assigned to each of the Linux distributions you have installed by opening the PowerShell command line and entering the command (only available in Windows Build 18362 or higher): wsl -l -v

To set a distribution to be backed by either version of WSL please run:

Make sure to replace with the actual name of your distribution and with the number ‘1’ or ‘2’. You can change back to WSL 1 at anytime by running the same command as above but replacing the ‘2’ with a ‘1’.

The update from WSL 1 to WSL 2 may take several minutes to complete depending on the size of your targeted distribution. If you are running an older (legacy) installation of WSL 1 from Windows 10 Anniversary Update or Creators Update, you may encounter an update error. Follow these instructions to uninstall and remove any legacy distributions.

If wsl —set-default-version results as an invalid command, enter wsl —help . If the —set-default-version is not listed, it means that your OS doesn’t support it and you need to update to version 1903, Build 18362 or higher. If you are on Build 19041 for ARM64, this command may fail when using PowerShell in which case you can use a Command Prompt instead to issue the wsl.exe command.

If you see this message after running the command: WSL 2 requires an update to its kernel component. For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2kernel . You still need to install the MSI Linux kernel update package.

Additionally, if you want to make WSL 2 your default architecture you can do so with this command:

This will set the version of any new distribution installed to WSL 2.

Troubleshooting installation

Below are related errors and suggested fixes. Refer to the WSL troubleshooting page for other common errors and their solutions.

Installation failed with error 0x80070003

• The Windows Subsystem for Linux only runs on your system drive (usually this is your C: drive). Make sure that distributions are stored on your system drive:
• Open Settings -> **System —>Storage ->More Storage Settings: Change where new content is saved

WslRegisterDistribution failed with error 0x8007019e

• The Windows Subsystem for Linux optional component is not enabled:
• Open Control Panel ->Programs and Features ->Turn Windows Feature on or off -> Check Windows Subsystem for Linux or using the PowerShell cmdlet mentioned at the beginning of this article.

Installation failed with error 0x80070003 or error 0x80370102

• Please make sure that virtualization is enabled inside of your computer’s BIOS. The instructions on how to do this will vary from computer to computer, and will most likely be under CPU related options.
• WSL2 requires that your CPU supports the Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) feature, which was introduced in Intel Nehalem processors (Intel Core 1st Generation) and AMD Opteron. Older CPUs (such as the Intel Core 2 Duo) will not be able to run WSL2, even if the Virtual Machine Platform is successfully installed.

Error when trying to upgrade: Invalid command line option: wsl —set-version Ubuntu 2

• Enure that you have the Windows Subsystem for Linux enabled, and that you’re using Windows Build version 18362 or higher. To enable WSL run this command in a PowerShell prompt with admin privileges: Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux .

The requested operation could not be completed due to a virtual disk system limitation. Virtual hard disk files must be uncompressed and unencrypted and must not be sparse.

• Deselect “Compress contents” (as well as “Encrypt contents” if that’s checked) by opening the profile folder for your Linux distribution. It should be located in a folder on your Windows file system, something like: USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.
• In this Linux distro profile, there should be a LocalState folder. Right-click this folder to display a menu of options. Select Properties > Advanced and then ensure that the “Compress contents to save disk space” and “Encrypt contents to secure data” checkboxes are unselected (not checked). If you are asked whether to apply this to just to the current folder or to all subfolders and files, select “just this folder” because you are only clearing the compress flag. After this, the wsl —set-version command should work.

In my case, the LocalState folder for my Ubuntu 18.04 distribution was located at C:\Users \AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc

Check WSL Docs GitHub thread #4103 where this issue is being tracked for updated information.

The term ‘wsl’ is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program.

• Ensure that the Windows Subsystem for Linux Optional Component is installed. Additionally, if you are using an ARM64 device and running this command from PowerShell, you will receive this error. Instead run wsl.exe from PowerShell Core, or Command Prompt.

Error: This update only applies to machines with the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

• To install the Linux kernel update MSI package, WSL is required and should be enabled first. If it fails, it you will see the message: This update only applies to machines with the Windows Subsystem for Linux .
• There are three possible reason you see this message:

You are still in old version of Windows which doesn’t support WSL 2. See step #2 for version requirements and links to update.

WSL is not enabled. You will need to return to step #1 and ensure that the optional WSL feature is enabled on your machine.

After you enabled WSL, a reboot is required for it to take effect, reboot your machine and try again.

Error: WSL 2 requires an update to its kernel component. For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2kernel .

• If the Linux kernel package is missing in the %SystemRoot%\system32\lxss\tools folder, you will encounter this error. Resolve it by installing the Linux kernel update MSI package in step #4 of these installation instructions. You may need to uninstall the MSI from ‘Add or Remove Programs’, and install it again.

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How to Install Windows 10 in VirtualBox in Linux

This detailed beginner’s guide shows you how to install Windows 10 in VirtualBox on Linux.

I regularly encourage people to use Linux, and when I give them reasons to switch, I always mention that they can use Windows and Linux together if they’re ‘scared of Linux’.

One way to use the two systems together is to dual boot Windows and Linux. It works well except that you have to switch between the operating systems by restarting the system. This is somewhat inconvenient.

If, like me, you’re an infrequent user of Windows and don’t want to trouble yourself with dual booting Ubuntu and Windows 10, I suggest installing Windows 10 inside Linux by creating a virtual machine. In an earlier tutorial, I showed you how to install VMWare on Ubuntu, but in this one, we’ll be using Oracle VirtualBox to create virtual machines and installing Windows 10 on them.

What is VirtualBox and what are its advantages?

VirtualBox is open-source virtualization software from Oracle for creating virtual machines. With a virtual machine, you can run an operating system like an application inside your current operating system. It’s like a computer inside a computer.

These are called virtual machines because they’re basically emulating other operating systems, but they’re not really interacting with the computer system like a true operating system would.

The bottom line is that with virtual machine software, you can use Windows like an application inside Linux. Unlike regular applications, it will consume lots of RAM. But this way, you can use Windows-specific software and programs inside Linux without needing to install Windows fully.

Install Windows 10 in VirtualBox on Ubuntu and Linux Mint



Before installing Windows 10 in VirtualBox, let’s see what you need first:

• An internet connection with good speed, or a Windows 10 ISO that you’ve already downloaded.
• At least 4 GB of RAM. The more RAM you’ve got, the better.
• Around 20 GB of free storage for installing Windows 10.

Once you’ve made sure you have the prerequisites, let’s see how to do it. If you prefer, you can watch this tutorial as a video. Do subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Linux tutorials:

Step 1: Download Windows 10 ISO

First and foremost, you need to download a Windows 10 ISO. You can download Windows 10 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on your system. Go to the link below and choose which version of Windows 10 you’d like to download:

You’ll have to choose the edition and language, and then pick between a 32-bit or 64-bit system, before you download the ISO.

Step 2: Install VirtualBox on Ubuntu and Linux Mint

It’s very easy to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu. All you need to do is to use the command below:

Step 3: Install Windows 10 in VirtualBox

Start VirtualBox. You should see a screen like the one below.

Name the VM anything you like. Also select the operating system and version. In this case I’ve chosen Windows 10 and 64-bit.

Choose the RAM size. The recommended RAM size for 64-bit Windows 10 is 2 GB, while for 32-bit Windows 10 it’s 1 GB. But I suggest you have a little more than that for a smoother experience.

Next is the size for the virtual machine. If you’re crunched on space choose the recommended size, otherwise make it a little more than the recommended size.

For the format, go ahead with the VDI format.

Confused about dynamic or fixed size? If you choose dynamic, the installed VM will grow beyond its allocated size later. If you’re not going to use Windows extensively, I suggest that you go with fixed size.

Now it’s time to finalize the installation size. You can choose where to create the virtual disk. The default location (Home directory) works fine.

You should now be back at the start screen. But wait, we haven’t used our Windows 10 ISO yet, have we? Now’s the time to actually use the ISO. Click on Settings.

In here, go to Storage and add a new optical drive. I added this screenshot later because a few readers had difficulties finding it.

Click Choose disk and point to the Windows 10 ISO.

Now you should see the Windows 10 ISO listed under Storage. Press OK.

You should now be back at the main screen of Oracle VirtualBox. Now everything is ready. The next step is to install Windows 10. Click on Start from the main screen:

Voila!! You should see the familiar Windows boot screen:

A couple of seconds later, you should see the option to install Windows:



Note: At this point, if you see the Windows logo with a black background and it never starts to install, you may have to perform a little tweak.

As It’s FOSS reader Larry points out, “There seems to be an incompatibility between Virtualbox and Windows 10 1703. A virtual machine that runs W10 1607 fine will fail to boot W10 1703 -UNLESS- the following parameter is set: Under System – Acceleration you must set Paravirtualization to None and then reboot.”

I think you can handle things from here, as installing Windows is just a matter of few clicks. For your convenience I’ve added the screenshots in a gallery. Click on the images to enlarge them if you need any hints.





















Once you’ve successfully installed Windows 10, you’ll find that the internet connection is shared with the virtual Windows as well: no need for further configuration. Here’s It’s FOSS on the Edge browser in Windows 10 inside a VM.



When you’re done using the virtual Windows, you can go back to the main screen and switch off the virtual machine from there:

To start the virtual OS again, just click on Start (green arrow) on the main screen of VirtualBox again. That’s it. More on using virtual operating systems later. I think this gives you a good idea of how to install Windows in Ubuntu or Linux Mint to begin with 🙂

In a related post, you can learn how to create a bootable Windows USB in Linux.

Your take?

Did this tutorial help you install Windows on Linux using VirtualBox? If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to drop a comment.

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