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See the Best practices for setting up a WSL development environment guide to learn more. Once you have installed WSL, you will need to create a user account and password for your newly installed Linux distribution.
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If you run into an issue during the install process, check the installation section of the troubleshooting guide.
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exe in the command: wsl.exe -install -d or to list available distributions: wsl.exe -l -o. If you want to install additional distributions from inside a Linux/Bash command line (rather than from PowerShell or Command Prompt), you must use.
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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 machine. This command will enable the required optional components, download the latest Linux kernel, set WSL 2 as your default, and install a Linux distribution for you (Ubuntu by default, see below to change this). You can now install everything you need to run Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) by entering this command in PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt and then restarting your machine. If you're running an older build, or just prefer not to use the install command and would like step-by-step directions, see WSL manual installation steps for older versions. You can update to the latest Windows version in the Settings menu or using the Windows Update Assistant.
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To check your Windows version and build number, select Windows logo key + R, type winver, select OK.
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