Enabling Required Features

Create a PowerShell script file named enable-wsl-features.ps1 and paste the following commands. Execute it with administrator privileges, then restart your system.

# Set execution policy for this session
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process

# Navigate to script directory
$scriptPath = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
Push-Location $scriptPath

# Find and install Hyper-V packages
Get-ChildItem "$env:SystemRoot\servicing\Packages\*Hyper-V*.mum" | ForEach-Object {
    $packageName = $_.Name
    Write-Host "Installing package: $packageName"
    DISM /Online /NoRestart /Add-Package:"$env:SystemRoot\servicing\Packages\$packageName"
}

# Enable required Windows features
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All -NoRestart -All
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform -NoRestart -All
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux -NoRestart -All

# Clean up
Get-ChildItem "hyper-v.txt" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Remove-Item
Pop-Location

Updating WSL

The official documentation provides an update method, but it can be slow.
For faster installation, manually download the latest release from:
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases

After downloading, run the installer package normally.

To verify your WSL version:

wsl --version

If this displays version information, your WSL installation was successful.

Installing Linux Distributions

Distribution Selection

To view available Linux distributions, use:

wsl --list --online

This will show all available distributions you can install:

PS C:\Users\32956> wsl --list --online
The following are valid Linux distributions that can be installed.
Use 'wsl.exe --install <Distro>' to install.

NAME                            FRIENDLY NAME
Debian                          Debian GNU/Linux
Ubuntu                          Ubuntu
Ubuntu-22.04                    Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu-24.04                    Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
kali-linux                      Kali Linux Rolling
openSUSE-Tumbleweed             openSUSE Tumbleweed
OracleLinux_8_7                 Oracle Linux 8.7

Installation Methods

Using winget package manager:

# Search for available distributions
winget search wsl

# Install a specific distribution (example for Ubuntu 22.04)
winget install Canonical.Ubuntu.2204

Alternative, use WSL command directly:

# Install a specific distribution
wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

Troubleshooting

WSL Update Error (403 Forbidden)

If you encounter:

PS C:\Users\32956> wsl --install
Forbidden (403).

This typically occurs when system proxies are enabled. Temporarily disable your proxy settings or configure WSL to bypass proxies for the update process.