Microsoft is aware of the customization-hungry tinkerers in their community of users, so they chose to add the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), which allows Windows 10 users to run tools and stuff in a command line interface. Before we talk about how to enable WSL utility, we need to see the system requirements for this software.
Requirements
To not bore you with the unnecessary jibber jabber, here are the requirements to enable WSL on your system:
- Hyper V support
- A 64-bit version of Windows
- Windows 10 version 1903 or better.
- Windows 10 version 2004 for arm systems(or better).
You can use the following methods to install WSL on Windows 10.
Install WSL utility Through Powershell
The Powershell program also employs CLI elements, and it can be used to install the WSL on Windows 10:
- Run Powershell as an admin.
- Execute this command: wsl –install
- Wait until everything finishes, and then restart your computer.
- Set Up the Ubuntu distributions as you require.
Install a Non-Default Linux Distro Through the Powershell Commands
- Open the Powershell as an administrator and enter these commands: wsl –list –online
- Find the Linux version that fulfills your requirements. They usually appear in a series like this:
- Ubuntu
- Debian
- kali-linux
- opensuse-42
- SLES-12
- Execute this command to install the WSL utility of your choice: wsl –install -d
- Restart your system when the utility installs.
The GUI method To Install WSL
Windows users these days are spoiled, and they do not love to tinker with the CLI methods and utilities. WSL 1 cannot be installed by a single command as we did earlier. So, here is the easiest GUI method to go through with installing WSL.
- Search and open Turn Windows features on or off.
- Enable these two by enabling their respective check boxes.
- Virtual Machine Platform
- Windows Subsystem For Linux
- The system should download/install all the related files for this utility.
- Restart your system after the files are installed.
That is all for our How To Install WSL on Windows 10 Guide. If you are facing errors and issues with other PC games or your PC, then also see our hub for commonly occurring PC errors and their fixes.
