WSL tools

This page provides a reference list of software that can be used with Ubuntu on WSL.

Management tools

These tools can be used to manage WSL instances, often providing a dashboard interface.

• WSL2 distro manager
• WSL UI
• Easy WSL
• Raft WSL
• WSL dashboard
• WSL commander
• Pengwin setup

Security and deployment

• Ubuntu Pro for WSL - Enables automatic attachment of an Ubuntu Pro subscription to WSL and instance management with Landscape

Utilities

General utilities for using WSL or developing for WSL.

• WSL shortcut - Create Windows desktop shortcuts (.lnk files) pointing to WSL files and directories.
• WSL compact - Compacts the size of WSL vhdx images.
• WSL open - Open files with xdg-open on Bash for Windows in Windows applications.
• WSL utilities - Similar features to WSL Open, now archived
• Ctrl-space-wsl - A fast application launcher for WSL2.
• Wsl-clip - clipboard utility that bridges Linux (WSL2) and Windows
• GoWSL - A wrapper around the WSL API on Windows, for use within Go projects.
• wsl-api (rust) - WSL API wrapper for Rust.
• WSL Plugins - First-party API to hook into specific events in the WSL lifecycle.