🎉 The Beauty of WSL

Get Started

Of course, from an Administrator PowerShell terminal:

 1# Update WSL first
 2wsl --update
 3
 4# Install the distribution you want
 5wsl --install -d Ubuntu
 6
 7# List the distributions available for installation
 8wsl --list --online
 9
10# List all installed WSL distributions
11wsl --list
12wsl --list -v
13
14# If needed, reinstall a distribution
15wsl --shutdown
16wsl --unregister Ubuntu

Be careful with wsl --unregister: it removes the distribution and its data.

Windows Terminal

WSL gives you a Linux environment on Windows, and you can also use Windows Terminal for a more comfortable command-line experience.

Here are some useful shortcuts in Windows Terminal — and a few Windows shortcuts as well 😉:

Alt + Enter: full-screen mode
Ctrl + Shift + T: open a new terminal tab
Ctrl + Shift + N: open a new window
Ctrl + Alt + 1/2/3: switch between configured profiles
Windows + V: open the clipboard history
Alt + Shift + =: split the pane vertically
Alt + Shift + -: split the pane horizontally
Alt + Arrow: switch between panes
Alt + Shift + Arrow: resize the current pane
code .: open VS Code from the current directory

Free some space on your WSL

Check which directories contain the most data:

1du -h --max-depth 1

Enable the Hyper-V module in Windows Features:
Go to Control Panel → Turn Windows features on or off → enable Hyper-V → restart Windows.
This is required to use the Optimize-VHD command.
Let’s shrink the virtual disk. Run PowerShell as Administrator:

1wsl --shutdown
2
3# Find ext4.vhdx under:
4# C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\
5
6Optimize-VHD -Path C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\AlmaLinuxOSFoundation.AlmaLinux8WSL_xxxxxxxxxxxxxx\LocalState\ext4.vhdx -Mode Full

Export/Import your WSL

1wsl --export AlmaLinux-8 AlmaLinux-8-full.tar
2wsl --import AlmaLinux8-full C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Local\Packages\Alma8-full .\AlmaLinux-8-full.tar
3wsl -d AlmaLinux8-full -u <USER>
4wsl --unregister AlmaLinux8-full
5
6wsl --list -v

This is useful if you want to back up a distribution, move it, or recreate it under a different name.

Activate Systemd

You need WSL 2 and a recent enough WSL version.

Add the following lines at the top of /etc/wsl.conf:

1# /etc/wsl.conf
2[boot]
3systemd=true

Then restart WSL:

1wsl --shutdown

Install KVM on WSL

First, you need systemd enabled.
Inside %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig:

1[wsl2]
2nestedVirtualization=true

Restart WSL:

1wsl.exe --shutdown

Then install and check KVM support:

 1sudo apt update
 2sudo apt install cpu-checker
 3sudo kvm-ok
 4
 5# Basic packages
 6sudo apt -y install libvirt-daemon-system bridge-utils qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon
 7
 8# Extra tools
 9sudo apt install virtinst libosinfo-bin virt-top libguestfs-tools
10sudo apt install xsltproc uidmap
11
12# GUI tools
13sudo apt -y install qemu-system virt-manager
14
15sudo addgroup kvm
16sudo adduser "$(id -un)" libvirt-qemu
17sudo adduser "$(id -un)" kvm
18newgrp libvirt

Make Podman engine and Kind work on WSL2

Adapt %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig to use systemd and cgroup v2:

1[wsl2]
2nestedVirtualization=true
3kernelCommandLine = cgroup_no_v1=all systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1

Update the UID map and Podman user configuration:

 1# Rootless Podman 4.9.3 on WSL2 + Ubuntu 24.04
 2sudo apt-get install uidmap
 3
 4echo "ubuntu:100000:2097152" | sudo tee /etc/subuid
 5echo "ubuntu:100000:2097152" | sudo tee /etc/subgid
 6
 7mkdir -p "$HOME/.config/containers"
 8
 9cat << EOF > "$HOME/.config/containers/containers.conf"
10unqualified-search-registries=["docker.io"]
11
12[aliases]
13"library"="docker.io/library"
14
15[engine]
16cgroup_manager = "cgroupfs"
17events_logger = "journald"
18EOF

Replace ubuntu with your actual Linux user if needed.

Install Kind:

1[ "$(uname -m)" = x86_64 ] && curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/v0.27.0/kind-linux-amd64
2chmod +x ./kind
3sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin/kind

Make WSL use the host network configuration

This is useful when switching between Wi-Fi networks.

Add the following to %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig:

1[wsl2]
2networkingMode=mirrored
3dnsTunneling=true
4autoProxy=true

Then restart WSL:

1wsl --shutdown

Post-scriptum

This article was originally written in May 2025, and it reflects the WSL configuration and workarounds I was using at that time.

WSL evolves quickly, so some settings may become unnecessary or enabled by default in newer versions.

In particular:

systemd support may already be enabled depending on the distribution
nestedVirtualization=true may already be the default on supported systems
recent Podman versions may work without forcing cgroupfs
cgroup v2 support has improved over time
WSL networking behavior continues to evolve

So I would treat the commands above as a record of a working setup from that period rather than as a universal configuration for every current WSL installation.

The main idea, however, remains the same:

WSL is a very practical way to keep a Linux-first workstation while still working inside a Windows environment.