Microsoft reduces WSL installation on Windows 10 to a single command

Microsoft has simplified the installation of Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10. Executing a single command is now sufficient to install WSL. That works with Windows 10 version 2004 and later versions.

Windows 10 users can now install WSL by running wsl.exe –install in the Command Prompt or PowerShell. By default, Windows then installs Ubuntu and the most current WSL Linux kernel. According to Microsoft, the method of adding the Linux subsystem to Windows 10 used to be too complicated. This was done via the optional Windows functions and the download of packages.

To take advantage of the new installation method, users must install KB5004296. Microsoft released this update last week for Windows 10 version 2004 and later versions. The recent Windows Insider Preview versions of Windows 10 already include the simplified WSL installation.

Users can get a list of Linux distributions to install with wsl –list –online, and if they want a distro other than Ubuntu, they can add it with wsl –install -d . Updating the WSL Linux kernel can be done with wsl –update and via wsl –update rollback you can return to a previous kernel version. Furthermore, with wsl –status information about, among other things, the chosen distro and kernel version can be requested.