How to Install and Use WSL2 on Windows 10: A Step-by-Step Guide

Prerequisites

You need to enable the WSL feature by:

• Open the Start menu and search for “Turn Windows features on or off.”
• Scroll down and check the box next to “Windows Subsystem for Linux.”
• Click “OK” and wait for the feature to be installed

Install a Linux Distro

You can choose between variety of Linux Distributions for WSL however I recommend using Debian as explained here

To install Debian, open CMD or Powershell as admin and run:

1

winget install -e --id Debian.Debian

Setup

• Open a Command Prompt window as an administrator.
• Type the following command and press Enter:

1

wsl --set-default-version 2

• Wait for the command to finish running.

Start Using it

Now that you have set up WSL2, you can start using it. To do this, follow these steps:

• Open the Start menu and search for the Linux distribution you installed.
• Click on the distribution to open it.
• Follow the prompts to set up your Linux environment.

that’s it <3