BashForWindows
Microsoft has partnered with Canonical, the makers of Ubuntu, to create a release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), which allows Windows users to use Linux command line tools such as such as grep, sed, git on Windows files through Bash.
Prerequisites
In order to install Bash/WSL, you must be running a 64-bit version of Windows 10 version 1607 or later, any version of Windows 11, or Windows Server 2019 or later. In Windows, open the Settings app > System > About to check if your Windows version is compatible.
Installation
- First, turn on Developer Mode, open the Settings app > Update & security > For developers > Select the Developer radio button
- Enable the Windows Subsystem for Linux, this can be done by turning on the feature through the Windows Features program or through a PowerShell session.
- For the GUI method: Go to Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off (this will require local administrator privileges > Check the box for Windows Subsystem on Linux
- For PowerShell method (in an elevated/administrator session) use the command:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
- Restart the system.
- Open a command prompt or PowerShell session, and then run
bash. - After accepting the license, the Ubuntu user mode image will be installed.
Use
Simply run bash in a command prompt or PowerShell session to enter bash. The first time Bash is installed on Windows, a prompt will appear to create a Unix user. This Unix user account is completely separate from the Windows user account and has sudo permissions on the WSL. There is no GUI that is installed, nor can be installed.
The Linux installation is located at %localappdata%\lxss\, which is a hidden system folder.
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Do not use Windows tools to edit the files or sub-files within this directory as corruption of the Linux files could occur. |
Windows storage and files can then be accessed from /mnt/..., such as /mnt/c/Users/myAccount.