This assumes that you have the version 2004 of Windows 10. Run the command Winver (open a command line then type winver) to see what version you have.
WSL is Windows Subsystem for Linux and lets you run one of several Linuxes (after installing) in Windows. For now it is terminal only but you can debug programs using Visual Studio. WSL 2 is the current version of WSL though you can run the older WSL 1.
Your computer also needs to support Hyper-V Virtualization to run WSL 2. If it doesn’t you can run WSL 1.
Steps.
- Open a PowerShell windows in Admin mode. My way of doing this is open the search window and type Powershell. Then right-click run as Admin.
When I mean Search Window, I mean the one on the Toolbar that looks like this like a magnifying glass: (highlighted in the red square)
2. In the Powershell Windows, copy and paste this command:
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
3. Next run this command in the same Windows:
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart
4. Set WSL 2 as default with this Powershell command:
wsl --set-default-version 2
Now close the Powershell Window and in the search box type Store. You should see Microsoft Store. It’s an app on your PC. Click it to run it and type in Linux in the search box. Click Show all and you should see something like this. Pick one like Ubuntu, Debian etc. Apart from the ones with a price against them, the rest are free. Cl;ick Get and it will install.
After it has installed, you can run it from your Start Menu. I dragged it onto the square so I have a nice clickable icon.
Just click it and your Ubuntu (or whatever) Linux will open at a terminal prompt like this.
