Get WSL Ubuntu on Windows 10

Windows 10 Subsystem for Linux

The fastest way to get a terminal on Windows 10 is to enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux (commonly called WSL) by using the built in installation command.

The rest of this contains the earlier instructions on how to do the same thing. You may not need them if you do the stuff above correctly.

Before you do anything else make sure your work is saved and stop everything else you are doing on the computer because this process requires restarting it.

First we need to install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store. You can skip the prompt to “Sign In”, which isn’t required.

Then since you are here go ahead and install the new Windows Terminal (Preview).

When the Ubuntu install finished click on “Launch”.

You’ll see a terminal pop up containing something like the following text:

Installing, this may take a few minutes...
  WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x8007019e
  The Windows Subsystem for Linux optional component is not enabled. Please enable it and try again.
  See https://aka.ms/wslinstall for details.
  Press any key to continue...

Don’t worry about the error. It just means that WSL isn’t activated, which you will do now. Go ahead and open the https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10 link and follow the instructions, but here they are again for convenience:

Open PowerShell by typing it into the search and watching for it to pop up as an App. DO NOT SELECT THE APP! Notice the “Run as Administrator” to the right and select that instead.

You should see a blue PowerShell terminal open up.

Paste the following into the blue PowerShell terminal window at the command line:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

This will output something like the following to the screen:

PS C:\Windows\system32> Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
  Do you want to restart the computer to complete this operation now?
  [Y] Yes  [N] No  [?] Help (default is "Y"):

You’ll have to accept and reboot.

After the reboot type “Ubuntu” into your Windows search bar to start it up.

You’ll see a bunch of text scroll on the screen since Ubuntu is being installed. Wait for it install and be patient. There will be long pauses where nothing happens on the screen.

Installing, this may take a few minutes...

After the install completes you will be prompted for a username.

Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
  For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
  Enter new UNIX username:

Pick a username that uses nothing but lowercase letters and numbers (so long as it does not start with one).

Then it will prompt you for a password. IT WILL NOT SHOW YOU TYPING THE PASSWORD BUT IT IS WORKING! This password does not need to be particularly long since only you will be using it on this local system.

passwd: password updated successfully

That completes the basic Ubuntu installation but you’re not done yet.

Installation successful!
  To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
  See "man sudo_root" for details.

You still need to update and upgrade.

First let’s get the latest list of system packages for the update and upgrade.

sudo apt update

You will see a lot of stuff scroll on the screen and this can take a while. Be patient.

...
  Fetched 16.5 MB in 15s (1080 kB/s)
  Reading package lists... Done
  Building dependency tree
  Reading state information... Done
  10 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.

Now it’s time to upgrade.

Enter the following to start the upgrade process.

sudo apt upgrade

You’ll be show the packages that will be upgraded and prompted to continue.

...
  After this operation, 99.3 kB of additional disk space will be used.
  Do you want to continue? [Y/n]y

This should take quite a while depending on how old the installation package was. Be patient.

Once this finishes are good to go and can start using it or installing other software that you need.