All future launches should take less than a second. 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. 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. ( This default distribution can be changed). This command will enable the features necessary to run WSL and install the Ubuntu distribution of Linux. Open PowerShell or Windows Command Prompt in administrator mode by right-clicking and selecting 'Run as administrator', enter the wsl -install command, then restart your machine. You can now install everything you need to run WSL with a single command. If you are on earlier versions please see the manual install page. You must be running Windows 10 version 2004 and higher (Build 19041 and higher) or Windows 11 to use the commands below.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets developers install a Linux distribution (such as Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, Kali, Debian, Arch Linux, etc) and use Linux applications, utilities, and Bash command-line tools directly on Windows, unmodified, without the overhead of a traditional virtual machine or dualboot setup. Developers can access the power of both Windows and Linux at the same time on a Windows machine.

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