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wsl-configs

wsl-configs – a repository containing a curated collection of configuration files for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Main configurations

.wslconfig

.wslconfig – a fully documented global WSL 2 configuration file.

Copy the configuration to :

C:\Users\<UserName>\.wslconfig

Where <UserName> is a Windows username.

Make configuration changes and shut down WSL:

wsl --shutdown

And start it again. After this, the configuration will be applied.

Info

More information about the configuration is available in the reference section .wslconfig.

wsl.conf

wsl.conf – a fully documented per-instance configuration file used by both WSL 1 and WSL 2 instances.

Copy the configuration to:

/etc/wsl.conf

Make configuration changes and shutdown an instance:

wsl --terminate <InstanceName>

And start it again. After this, the configuration will be applied.

Info

More information about the configuration is available in the reference section wsl.conf.

wsl-distribution.conf

wsl-distribution.conf – a fully documented per-distribution configuration file used during installation and except OOBE script during import of the distribution.

Info

More information about the configuration is available on the reference page wsl-distribution.conf.

Additional configurations

distributions.json

distributions.json – an unofficial, ready-to-use list of additional WSL distributions consists of:

DistributionArchitecture
NixOS 25.05amd64
Rocky Linux 9.7amd64, arm64
Rocky Linux 10.1amd64, arm64
Ubuntu 25.04amd64, arm64
Ubuntu 25.10amd64, arm64
Ubuntu 26.04 Snapshot 1amd64, arm64

The file can be downloaded and connected locally using commands (run as administrator):

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" `
  -Name DistributionListUrlAppend `
  -Value "file:///path/to/distributions.json" `
  -Type String -Force

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" ^
/v "DistributionListUrlAppend" ^
/t REG_MULTI_SZ ^
/d "file:///path/to/distributions.json" ^
/f

Info

Change file:///path/to/distributions.json to real file path.

Or from the repository using commands (run as administrator):

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" `
  -Name DistributionListUrlAppend `
  -Value "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greengorych/wsl-configs/main/distributions/distributions.json" `
  -Type String -Force

reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" ^
/v "DistributionListUrlAppend" ^
/t REG_MULTI_SZ ^
/d "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/greengorych/wsl-configs/main/distributions/distributions.json" ^
/f

After adding the manifest, additional distributions will appear in the list of available distributions.

wsl --list --online

To remove an additional list, use the following commands (run as administrator):

Remove-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" `
  -Name "DistributionListUrlAppend"  `
  -Force

reg delete "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss" ^
/v "DistributionListUrlAppend" ^
/f