Table of Contents

System Requirements

First, you need to check if your system is ready for using WSL2. Open Windows Terminal and execute the following command:

wsl -v

The output should look similar to this:

WSL version: 2.2.4.0
Kernel version: 5.15.153.1-2
WSLg version: 1.0.61
MSRDC version: 1.2.5326
Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511
DXCore version: 10.0.26091.1-240325-1447.ge-release
Windows version: 10.0.22631.3737

If the output starts with WSL version: 2.x, you are ready to use WSL2 and can continue with the installation.

Else, you need to install WSL2 and it's components as shown below.

Before proceeding with the installation, please consult Microsoft's documentation regarding the minimum requirements for running WSL2.

Once you know that your system can run WSL2, open the Run prompt by pressing Win+r and type in the dialog OptionalFeatures, then press Enter.

This will open a window where you can turn Windows features on/off.

Make sure the next features are activated (checked):

  • Hyper-V (including its sub-features)
  • Virtual Machine Platform
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux

If any of the above features is missing, then first you need to install them manually using this guide and then continue with the below steps.

Click Ok and restart your computer.

Open Microsoft Store, search for Windows Subsystem for Linux and install it.

Make sure WSL2 is set as default by executing the below command in Windows Terminal:

wsl --set-default-version 2

To test, run again the following command:

wsl -v

This time the output should display WSL version: 2.x, which means that your system is ready for using WSL2 and you can continue with the installation.