Microsoft have announced that WSL 2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2) is coming to Windows 10 1903 and 1909. WSL 2 is a big step forward from the original WSL 1 with performance and compatibility improvements. WSL 2 is coming to 64bit version of Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1909. For ARM based systems you will need version 2004 (May 2020 Update).

So if you want to try WSL 2 make sure you have either the current version (2004) or 1903/1909 and they follow these simple steps:

The first step is from an admin Powershell run the following command:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

It will ask if you want to reboot your PC, you can say no at this point and then running the next command:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

Reboot and then head to the Microsoft Store and install your chosen Linux distro.

Once it has installed fire up the distro and go through the user creation setup. Once that is done you can setup WSL.

Go to a Powersell and run:

WSL –set-version <distroname> 2

e.g. WSL –set-version DEBIAN 2

That’s it, you are ready to go. I would get the new Windows Terminal.

Here is my video walk through of how to install WSL2 for Windows 10:

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