Windows Subsystem for Linux

Windows Subsystem for Linux#

Overview#

  • This tutorial will walk you through installing Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL.

    • WSL is a type of lightweight virtual machine integrated tightly with Windows that allows easy usage of linux commands and filesystem formatting while maintaining access to your entire Windows filesystem via a mounted device.

Installation#

  • Start by either:

    1. Searching for “Windows Subsystem for Linux” in the Microsoft Store and clicking Get.

    2. Opening Windows Terminal, Command Prompt, or Powershell and running the command wsl --install.

  • You will likely be prompted to grant elevation/administrator-level access. Do so.

  • By default, WSL will install Ubuntu. It is strongly recommended to stick with the default as WSL lacks compatibility for non-Ubuntu distributions.

    • Furthermore, the rest of this tutorial (and others) will focus primarily on Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions where Linux is applicable.

  • You will need to reboot your computer after WSL has finished installing.

  • Once complete, WSL will ask you to choose a UNIX username and password.

    • Choose a brief appropriate username. Your first name or ONU email address name will suffice.

      • Do not use a username with spaces.

    • Choose a password. It need not be overly long, as you will need to type it frequently.

      • Hopefully you already have a strong password for your host machine…

    • When inputting your password, no characters will appear - this is normal. Simply continue typing your desired password.

      • You will be asked to confirm your password by typing it again - this will help if you type it incorrectly.

  • Once the previous steps have finished, you will be presented with a shell prompt that looks like this:

user@desktop:~$