Table of contents
Minimal distribution
The fastest distribution to install is the already configured Alpine:
❯ install-wsl alpine1 -Distribution Alpine -Configured
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine1]...
Downloading docker://ghcr.io/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine#latest to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz with filename miniwsl-alpine
⌛ Downloading Docker image layer from ghcr.io/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine:latest...
⌛ Getting docker authentication token for registry ghcr.io and repository antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine...
⌛ Getting image manifests from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine/manifests/latest...
⌛ Getting image manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine/manifests/sha256:ec906d1cb2f8917135a9d1d03dd2719e2ad09527e8d787434f0012688111920d...
👀 Root filesystem size: 35,4 MB. Digest sha256:a10a24a60fcd632be07bcd6856185a3346be72ecfcc7109366195be6f6722798. Downloading...
sha256:a10a24a60fcd632be07bcd6856185a3346be72ecfcc7109366195be6f6722798 (35,4 MB) [=======================================================================================================================] 100%
🎉 Successfully downloaded Docker image layer to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz.tmp
👀 Downloaded file size: 35,4 MB
🎉 [Alpine:3.22] Synced at [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz].
⌛ Creating distribution [alpine1] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter distribution: wsl -d alpine1PS❯ wsl -d alpine2
[powerlevel10k] fetching gitstatusd .. [ok]
Once the root filesystem is downloaded locally, subsequent installations are even faster because the root filesystem is available locally:
PS❯ install-wsl alpine2 -Distribution Alpine -Configured
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine2]...
⌛ Getting docker authentication token for registry ghcr.io and repository antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine...
⌛ Getting image manifests from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine/manifests/latest...
⌛ Getting image manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/miniwsl-alpine/manifests/sha256:ec906d1cb2f8917135a9d1d03dd2719e2ad09527e8d787434f0012688111920d...
👀 [Alpine:3.22] Root FS already at [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz].
⌛ Creating distribution [alpine2] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\miniwsl.alpine.rootfs.tar.gz]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter distribution: wsl -d alpine2
PS❯ wsl -d alpine2
[powerlevel10k] fetching gitstatusd .. [ok]
wsl❯ exit
PS❯
Get-Wsl allows retrieving information about the installed distributions:
❯ get-wsl alpine* | format-table -Property *
FileSystemPath BlockFile Length Name State Version Default Guid BasePath
-------------- --------- ------ ---- ----- ------- ------- ---- --------
\\wsl$\alpine1 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine1\ext4.vhdx 146800640 alpine1 Stopped 2 False 6c00c83f-bb99-4b6b-b2e6-53dca1c69b29 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine1
\\wsl$\alpine2 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine2\ext4.vhdx 146800640 alpine2 Stopped 2 False b54ef2b7-1ad8-46c2-9b3e-6ec3c6b5d147 C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\alpine2
Locally configured distribution
Installing a locally configured distribution allows starting from the official distribution root filesystem that contains updated packages:
PS❯ install-wsl ubuntu2210 -Distribution Ubuntu
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\ubuntu2510]...
⌛ Getting checksums from https://cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-wsl/daily-live/current/SHA256SUMS...
Downloading https://cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-wsl/daily-live/current/questing-wsl-amd64.wsl to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\ubuntu.rootfs.tar.gz with filename questing-wsl-amd64.wsl
⌛ Downloading https://cdimages.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-wsl/daily-live/current/questing-wsl-amd64.wsl...
questing-wsl-amd64.wsl (369,5 MB) [=======================================================================================================================================================================] 100%
🎉 [Ubuntu:noble] Synced at [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\ubuntu.rootfs.tar.gz].
⌛ Creating distribution [ubuntu2510] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\ubuntu.rootfs.tar.gz]...
⌛ Running initialization script [configure.sh] on distribution [ubuntu2510]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter distribution: wsl -d ubuntu2510
PS❯ wsl -d ubuntu2510
[powerlevel10k] fetching gitstatusd .. [ok]
wsl❯ exit
PS❯
Incus based distributions
Incus allows running linux system containers in Linux. It is similar to WSL as it can use root filesystems as source. Canonical provides root filesystems for the most popular Linux distributions. The images built can be browsed here.
Incus root filesystems may contain more packages than the ones needed for a minimal WSL installation. However, they provide a reliable and centralized source for Linux distributions.
The complete list of Incus images is available as a JSON file [here][json incus image list]. The image details are also available in this [json file][json incus images detail] (caution: it is about 2 Megabytes).
Let’s imagine that we want to try the Alpine edge distribution. We can type:
PS> install-wsl edge -Distribution incus:alpine:edge
install-wsl edge -Distribution incus:alpine:edge .
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\edge]...
⌛ Getting checksums from https://images.linuxcontainers.org/images/alpine/edge/amd64/default/20250808_13%3A00/SHA256SUMS...
Downloading https://images.linuxcontainers.org/images/alpine/edge/amd64/default/20250808_13%3A00/rootfs.tar.xz to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\incus.alpine_edge.rootfs.tar.gz with filename rootfs.tar.xz
⌛ Downloading https://images.linuxcontainers.org/images/alpine/edge/amd64/default/20250808_13%3A00/rootfs.tar.xz...
rootfs.tar.xz (3,4 MB) [==================================================================================================================================================================================] 100%
🎉 [alpine:edge] Synced at [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\incus.alpine_edge.rootfs.tar.gz].
⌛ Creating distribution [edge] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\incus.alpine_edge.rootfs.tar.gz]...
⌛ Running initialization script [configure.sh] on distribution [edge]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter distribution: wsl -d edge
PS> wsl -d edge
[powerlevel10k] fetching gitstatusd .. [ok]
❯ id
uid=1000(alpine) gid=1000(alpine) groups=10(wheel),1000(alpine)
❯ exit
PS>
Docker based distributions
Docker images can be used to create WSL distributions. The process is similar to using Incus images, but instead, it pulls the root filesystem from a Docker image.
To install a Docker based distribution, you can use the following command:
PS> install-wsl bw -Distribution docker://ghcr.io/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base#latest
⌛ Creating directory [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\bw]...
⌛ Getting docker authentication token for registry ghcr.io and repository antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base...
⌛ Getting image manifests from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/manifests/latest...
⌛ Getting image manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/manifests/sha256:6cb57ed1bcb10105054b1e301afa5cf8e067dc18e1946c5b5f421e8074acbb3d...
⌛ Getting image configuration manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/blobs/sha256:c56a57b923448c44cc6d7495bb276c3fc58131ff8203509cd8e2b9183d6ab598...
Downloading docker://ghcr.io/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base#latest to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\arch-base.2025.08.01.rootfs.tar.gz with filename arch-base
⌛ Downloading Docker image layer from ghcr.io/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base:latest...
⌛ Getting docker authentication token for registry ghcr.io and repository antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base...
⌛ Getting image manifests from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/manifests/latest...
⌛ Getting image manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/manifests/sha256:6cb57ed1bcb10105054b1e301afa5cf8e067dc18e1946c5b5f421e8074acbb3d...
⌛ Getting image configuration manifest from https://ghcr.io/v2/antoinemartin/powershell-wsl-manager/arch-base/blobs/sha256:c56a57b923448c44cc6d7495bb276c3fc58131ff8203509cd8e2b9183d6ab598...
👀 Root filesystem size: 209,5 MB. Digest sha256:63c4520dc98718104f6305850acc5c8e014fe454865d67d5040ac8ebcec98c35. Downloading...
sha256:63c4520dc98718104f6305850acc5c8e014fe454865d67d5040ac8ebcec98c35 (209,5 MB) [======================================================================================================================] 100%
🎉 Successfully downloaded Docker image layer to C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\arch-base.2025.08.01.rootfs.tar.gz.tmp
👀 Downloaded file size: 209,5 MB
🎉 [arch-base:2025.08.01] Synced at [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\arch-base.2025.08.01.rootfs.tar.gz].
⌛ Creating distribution [bw] from [C:\Users\AntoineMartin\AppData\Local\Wsl\RootFS\arch-base.2025.08.01.rootfs.tar.gz]...
⌛ Running initialization script [configure.sh] on distribution [bw]...
🎉 Done. Command to enter distribution: wsl -d bw
PS> wsl -d bw
[powerlevel10k] fetching gitstatusd .. [ok]
❯ id
uid=1000(alpine) gid=1000(alpine) groups=10(wheel),1000(alpine)
❯ exit
PS>
This will create a new WSL distribution named bw using the root filesystem from the specified Docker image.
Currently Wsl-Manager only supports docker images that contain only one layer.
[json incus image list]: https://images.linuxcontainers.org/imagesstreams/v1/index.json [json incus images detail]: https://images.linuxcontainers.org/imagesstreams/v1/images.json