Here are a few common problems that I hit when installing WSL. This is my personal mini guide to get it up and running in a few minutes.

First, you can visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10#simplified-installation-for-windows-insiders to get a beta build and run the commands to install WSL.

WSL can fail on a new machine even after this because it relies on virtualization:

• Enable Hyper-V (Turn Windows features on or off -> Hyper-V)
• Enable virtualization in the BIOS (go to your CPU Config and you’ll find it)

Bonus oddities:

• WSL2: Virtual hard disk files must be uncompressed and unencrypted and must not be sparse #4103
  • Go to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Packages\ and look for something like CanonicalGroup, right click on “LocalState”, Properties, Advanced, deselect “Compress contents”

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