Windows

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) preview is now available in the Microsoft Store as a store application for Windows 11 machines! Installing WSL through the store will allow you to get the latest WSL updates and features faster, and without needing to modify your Windows version. Read on to see how that’s possible and what this means for WSL! Is this a new version of WSL? This is the exact same WSL that you know and love, all that we’ve changed is where it gets installed and updated from. We’ve created this as an initial preview to help ensure quality before making this generally available. Why would you want to install WSL from the Microsoft Store? There are two big reasons to be excited for this change: You can get access to...

I’m excited to share some great news. We’re releasing Windows Package Manager 1.1. We’ve squashed some annoying bugs and added some highly anticipated features. The Windows Package Manager is being released to Windows 10 (build 1809 and newer) and Windows 11 as an automatic update via the Microsoft Store. The moment we’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Grab yourself a cup of coffee (or any other favorite beverage). Don’t worry; I’ll wait. Cheers! Client The team has been busy over the last few months making improvements and adding new features. The most notable new feature is access to apps in the Microsoft Store. The client now ships with two sources configured. One of them is the Windows Package Manager app repository, and...

Happy Windows Terminal release day! This release brings Windows Terminal Preview up to version 1.11 and Windows Terminal up to 1.10. The Windows Terminal release will roll out through the Windows Insider Program before going to retail Windows versions in order to catch any outstanding bugs that may appear. All of the features from our previous release are now in Windows Terminal, except for the default terminal setting, the editable actions page, and the Defaults page of the settings UI. Both builds of terminal can be installed from the Microsoft Store or from the GitHub releases page. Let’s dive into what’s new! Acrylic title bar A new setting has been added where you can make your title bar acrylic (Thanks @matthew4850!). This...

In the latest Windows Insider Preview builds, you can install everything you need to run WSL just by running wsl.exe --install. We’re excited to announce that this functionality is now officially backported to Windows 10 version 2004 and higher, which will make installing WSL on those builds much easier! Using wsl --install The process to set up WSL was previously too complicated, involving turning on multiple settings and installing multiple packages. We’ve simplified the process down to just one command, simply open a command prompt window with admin privileges and run wsl.exe --install. Once you hit enter, the process will automatically enable the WSL optional features required, install the Ubuntu distribution by default, and...

Download Visual Studio 2022 Preview This post is written by Erika Sweet, a Program Manager on Microsoft’s C++ Team. Visual Studio 2022 introduces a native WSL 2 toolset for C++ development. This toolset is available now in Visual Studio 2022 version 17.0 Preview 2. WSL 2 is the new, recommended version of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) architecture that provides better Linux file system performance, GUI support, and full system call compatibility. Visual Studio’s WSL 2 toolset allows you to build and debug C++ code on WSL 2 distros from Visual Studio without ever adding an SSH connection. You can already build and debug C++ code on WSL 1 distros using the native WSL 1 toolset introduced in Visual Studio 2019 version 16.1...