How to Install Ubuntu on Windows 11

To install Ubuntu on Windows 11, open PowerShell with Run as administrator, type wsl –install, press Enter, and restart your PC when the command finishes. Then select Start, type Ubuntu, open it, and create a Linux username and password. Ubuntu then runs in a window on your Windows desktop, with no disk partitioning and no boot menu.

Applies to: Windows 11 (all versions), with Ubuntu running through Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Checked against Microsoft Learn and Canonical’s Ubuntu on WSL documentation on October 6, 2026.

What installing Ubuntu on Windows 11 means

Windows Subsystem for Linux, or WSL, is a Windows feature that runs a Linux file system, Linux command-line tools and Linux apps directly on Windows, next to your normal Windows desktop and apps. Ubuntu is the Linux distribution (a packaged version of Linux) that Microsoft installs by default when you set up WSL.

New installations use WSL 2. Microsoft describes WSL 2 as a full Linux kernel running inside a lightweight virtual machine that Windows manages for you, so you never create or configure the virtual machine yourself. It uses a part of Microsoft’s Hyper-V technology called Virtual Machine Platform, which is why hardware virtualization has to be available on your PC.

This is different from the other two ways people put Ubuntu on a Windows computer:

Option	What you get	Choose it when
WSL (this guide)	An Ubuntu terminal and individual Linux apps inside Windows. Microsoft says it needs less CPU, memory and storage than a full virtual machine.	You want Linux commands, programming tools or a practice environment without leaving Windows.
Dual boot	The full Ubuntu Desktop installed on your drive next to Windows. You choose one system each time the PC starts.	You want the complete Ubuntu desktop running directly on your hardware.
Virtual machine	The full Ubuntu Desktop running in a window through separate virtual machine software.	You want the whole desktop but do not want to change your drive layout.

Dual booting is a much bigger job. Canonical’s Install Ubuntu Desktop tutorial asks for at least 25 GB of storage and a USB drive of 12 GB or more, tells you to back up your data first, and warns that BitLocker drive encryption must be turned off before Ubuntu can be installed alongside Windows. The rest of this article covers the WSL route, which changes none of those things.

Before you start

• Windows 11. Microsoft’s install page lists every version of Windows 11 as supported, including Windows 11 Home. To see your version, press the Windows logo key + R, type winver, and select OK.
• An administrator account. The install command has to run in a PowerShell window opened with Run as administrator.
• An internet connection. Windows downloads WSL and Ubuntu during setup.
• Current Windows updates. Canonical’s instructions ask for all of the latest Windows updates to be installed first.
• Hardware virtualization. WSL 2 cannot start if virtualization is switched off in your PC’s UEFI or BIOS firmware. If you are not sure, see how to enable virtualization in Windows 11 before you begin.
• Room on the system drive. Microsoft’s troubleshooting guide notes that WSL runs only on the system drive, usually C:. Ubuntu’s storage starts small and grows as you add software and files.

On a work or school computer, your organization may block WSL, virtualization or the Microsoft Store. If the steps below fail on a managed PC, ask your IT administrator before changing anything.

Install Ubuntu with one command

1. Select Start and type PowerShell. Right-click PowerShell in the results and choose Run as administrator. Approve the Windows permission prompt. A PowerShell window opens.
2. Type wsl –install and press Enter. Microsoft documents that this command enables the features needed to run WSL and installs the Ubuntu distribution. Leave the window open until it finishes.
3. Restart your PC. The restart is required; Ubuntu will not finish setting up until Windows has restarted.
4. Select Start, type Ubuntu, and open it. On the first launch a console window opens and asks you to wait a minute or two while files are decompressed and stored on your PC. Later launches take less than a second.
5. Type a Linux username when you are asked and press Enter. This name is only for Ubuntu and has nothing to do with your Windows username.
6. Type a password, press Enter, then type it again to confirm. Nothing appears on the screen while you type the password, not even dots. Microsoft calls this blind typing, and it is normal. Keep typing and press Enter.
7. Wait for the command prompt to appear. You are now signed in to Ubuntu, and this account is the Linux administrator for this copy of Ubuntu.

Remember the password. Ubuntu asks for it whenever you run a command that starts with sudo, which is the Linux way of running one command with administrator rights. Microsoft’s full reference for this method is How to install Linux on Windows with WSL.

Install Ubuntu from the Microsoft Store instead

Ubuntu is also published as an app in the Microsoft Store. Canonical lists this as the graphical way to add Ubuntu once WSL itself has been installed and the PC has been restarted. Use it if you prefer clicking to typing, or if you want to add a second Ubuntu release later.

1. Open the Microsoft Store app.
2. Search for Ubuntu. The Store shows the plain Ubuntu app along with numbered long-term support (LTS) releases.
3. Select the one you want and select Get. Wait for the download to finish.
4. Select Launch. The same first-run console window opens, and you create your Linux username and password as described above.

Install a specific Ubuntu release

The plain name Ubuntu gives you the default release. If a course, a tool or your workplace needs a particular release, install it by name.

1. Open PowerShell and run wsl –list –online. Windows prints the distributions you can install, with the exact name to use for each one. Canonical’s documentation shows names in the form Ubuntu-24.04 and Ubuntu-22.04.
2. Run wsl –install -d followed by the name, for example wsl –install -d Ubuntu-24.04.
3. Open the new entry from Start and create a username and password for it. Each installed distribution has its own separate Linux accounts.

Canonical notes that Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and later are delivered in a newer WSL package format that needs WSL 2.4.10 or higher. If an install by name fails, run wsl –update first and try again.

Turn on the Windows features by hand

The wsl –install command switches on the required Windows features for you, so most people can skip this section. Use it when an error says a feature is not enabled.

1. Select Start and type Windows features.
2. Choose Turn Windows features on or off. The Windows Features window opens.
3. Select Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform.
4. Select OK and restart your PC when Windows asks.

After the restart, return to the one-command method or the Microsoft Store method to add Ubuntu.

Confirm that Ubuntu is installed and using WSL 2

Open PowerShell (an administrator window is not needed for this) and run wsl –list –verbose. The short form is wsl -l -v. You should see a line for Ubuntu with its state, Running or Stopped, and a version number of 2.

• If the version shows 1, convert it with wsl –set-version Ubuntu 2. Microsoft warns that the conversion can take a while and suggests backing up your files first.
• To make WSL 2 the choice for anything you install later, run wsl –set-default-version 2.
• If you have more than one distribution and want Ubuntu to be the one that opens by default, run wsl –set-default Ubuntu.
• Inside Ubuntu, lsb_release -a prints the Ubuntu release you are running.
• wsl –status shows the default distribution and kernel version, and wsl –version shows the version of WSL itself.

How to open and run Ubuntu after installation

Microsoft documents several ways to start Ubuntu. They all open the same installation with the same files.

• Start menu: select Start, type Ubuntu, and open it.
• Windows Terminal: Microsoft recommends Windows Terminal because it supports tabs and panes. It creates a profile for each WSL distribution automatically. Select the arrow next to the + button and choose Ubuntu to open it in a new tab.
• PowerShell or Command Prompt: type wsl to open your default distribution, or wsl -d Ubuntu to name it. Started this way, Ubuntu opens in the Windows folder you were in. Type wsl ~ to start in your Linux home folder instead.
• One command without opening a shell: put the Linux command after wsl, for example wsl ls -la. The result prints in PowerShell and you stay in Windows.

To leave Ubuntu, type exit or close the window.

First things to do in Ubuntu

Update the packages

Windows does not update your Linux distribution. Microsoft states that updating and upgrading packages is left to you. In the Ubuntu window, type the following and press Enter:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Enter your Linux password when asked (again, nothing shows while you type). The first half refreshes the list of available packages, and the second half installs the newer versions. Confirm when Ubuntu asks whether to continue. Run this again every so often to keep Ubuntu current.

Try a few basic commands

Linux commands are typed in lowercase, and Linux treats uppercase and lowercase file names as different files, which Windows does not. These commands come from Canonical’s beginner command-line tutorial and are safe to practice with:

Command	What it does
pwd	Prints the folder you are currently in.
ls	Lists the files and folders in the current location.
cd ~	Returns to your home folder.
cd ..	Moves up to the parent folder.
mkdir practice	Creates a new folder named practice.
cat notes.txt	Shows the contents of a file named notes.txt.
man ls	Opens the manual page for a command, here ls.

Be careful with rm, which deletes files, and with anything that begins with sudo. Canonical’s advice is to make sure you understand what a command does before you run it with sudo, because it has the same power as the system administrator. For more on the shell itself, see our guide to installing Bash on Windows 11, which explains how Bash differs from Command Prompt.

Install software

Ubuntu installs software with the apt package manager. The pattern is sudo apt install followed by the package name. For example, Microsoft’s own WSL tutorial installs the GIMP image editor with sudo apt install gimp -y, where the -y answers yes to the confirmation question for you. The same pattern installs developer tools; our guide on how to install GCC on Windows 11 uses it to add the C and C++ compiler inside Ubuntu.

Use Windows files and apps with Ubuntu

Reach Windows files from Ubuntu

Your Windows drives are mounted inside Ubuntu under /mnt. The C: drive is /mnt/c, so cd /mnt/c takes you to it, and a folder such as C:\Users\YourName\Documents becomes /mnt/c/Users/YourName/Documents.

Reach Ubuntu files from Windows

In Ubuntu, type explorer.exe . (include the period) to open the current Linux folder in File Explorer. You can also type \\wsl$ in the File Explorer address bar to browse every installed distribution.

Microsoft recommends keeping files on the same system as the tools that use them. Projects you work on with Linux tools run fastest when they are stored in your Ubuntu home folder, not under /mnt/c.

Run Windows programs from Ubuntu

You can start Windows programs from the Ubuntu prompt by including the .exe ending. Microsoft’s example is notepad.exe .bashrc, which opens a Linux file in Windows Notepad.

Edit code with Visual Studio Code

Install Visual Studio Code on Windows, not inside Ubuntu, and add Microsoft’s WSL extension. Then type code . in an Ubuntu project folder to open that folder in the editor while the code keeps running in Linux.

Run Linux apps that have windows

WSL 2 on Windows 11 can run graphical Linux apps. After you install one with apt, start it by typing its name, and it opens in its own window. Microsoft says these apps can also be launched from the Windows Start menu, pinned to the taskbar, and switched to with Alt-Tab. Graphical apps do not work with WSL 1.

This is not a full Ubuntu desktop. Microsoft states that GUI app support does not provide a full desktop experience and that desktop-focused tools may not be supported. Details are in Microsoft’s guide to running Linux GUI apps on WSL.

Stop, back up, or remove Ubuntu

• Stop Ubuntu: in PowerShell, wsl –terminate Ubuntu stops that distribution. wsl –shutdown stops every distribution and the WSL 2 virtual machine. Ubuntu starts again the next time you open it.
• Update WSL itself: wsl –update updates WSL. This is separate from the apt commands, which update the software inside Ubuntu.
• Back up Ubuntu: wsl –export Ubuntu ubuntu-backup.tar saves a snapshot of the whole distribution to a file in the current folder. Microsoft documents wsl –import for restoring a snapshot under a new name and location.

Warning: the next command erases data. wsl –unregister Ubuntu removes the distribution from WSL, and Microsoft warns that all data, settings and software associated with it are permanently lost. Export a backup first if you have anything you want to keep. Installing Ubuntu again afterward gives you a clean copy.

To remove the Ubuntu app itself, go to Start > Settings > Apps > Installed apps, find Ubuntu, and select More > Uninstall. Removing Ubuntu leaves WSL in place. If you want WSL gone as well, follow our guide on how to uninstall WSL in Windows 11.

Troubleshooting

The command shows WSL help text instead of installing

Microsoft explains that this means WSL is already installed. Run wsl –list –online to see what is available, then wsl –install -d Ubuntu to add Ubuntu.

The installation hangs at 0.0%

Run wsl –install –web-download -d Ubuntu. This downloads Ubuntu from the web instead of through the Microsoft Store.

Error 0x80370102 or 0x80370114

The virtual machine could not start because a required feature is missing. Microsoft’s fixes are to turn on the Virtual Machine Platform feature (see the section above) and to enable virtualization in your PC’s firmware. Microsoft’s page on enabling virtualization on Windows links to instructions for the major PC makers. If Windows 11 is itself running inside a virtual machine, nested virtualization has to be enabled on the host. Older virtual machine software can also get in the way; Microsoft says VirtualBox 6 and later and VMware 15.5.5 and later work alongside Hyper-V.

Error 0x8007019e

The Windows Subsystem for Linux optional component is not enabled. Turn it on in Turn Windows features on or off, restart, and try again.

Error 0x80070003

WSL runs only on the system drive. If Windows is set to save new apps to another drive, go to Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Where new content is saved and make sure new apps are saved to the system drive.

Error 0x8000FFFF or another unexpected failure

Microsoft’s checklist is: make sure the terminal was opened with Run as administrator, run wsl –update, install pending Windows updates, and restart WSL with wsl –shutdown.

“Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions”

Open Ubuntu from Start at least once so it can finish its first-run setup. Also check which Windows account you are signed in to: distributions are installed per user, and Microsoft notes they do not appear under the built-in Administrator account.

You forgot your Ubuntu password

1. Open PowerShell and run wsl -u root. This opens your default distribution as the root user.
2. Type passwd followed by a space and your Linux username, then press Enter.
3. Enter the new password twice.
4. Type exit to return to PowerShell.

Ubuntu has no internet on a work PC or VPN

Microsoft’s troubleshooting guide traces this to company firewall policies and to VPN software changing DNS settings. On a managed computer, send your IT department Microsoft’s WSL troubleshooting page, which lists the policies involved, instead of editing network settings yourself.

Ubuntu is using too much memory or disk space

By default WSL 2 can use up to half of your PC’s memory. Microsoft recommends the WSL Settings app in the Start menu for changing that limit. Each distribution is stored in a virtual disk file that grows as needed, up to a default maximum of 1 TB on current WSL versions. Run wsl df -h / in PowerShell to see how much is used.

Frequently asked questions

Does installing Ubuntu this way erase Windows or need a partition?

No. WSL runs Ubuntu inside Windows. Your drive layout, your Windows files and the way your PC starts all stay the same. Partitioning only comes up if you choose to dual boot.

Does it work on Windows 11 Home?

Yes. Microsoft states that WSL 2 is available on Windows 11 Home. It uses the Virtual Machine Platform component, which is offered on all desktop editions.

Is this the same as the Ubuntu desktop?

No. You get the Ubuntu terminal, the full package library and the ability to run individual graphical apps. You do not get the Ubuntu desktop with its own taskbar and settings. For that, use a virtual machine or a dual-boot installation.

Are my Ubuntu username and password linked to my Windows account?

No. They are specific to that Linux distribution. If you install a second distribution, or reset this one, you create an account again.

Does Windows Update keep Ubuntu up to date?

Not the software inside Ubuntu. Run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade yourself. WSL itself is updated separately with wsl –update.

Can I have more than one Ubuntu release or another distribution?

Yes. Install each one by name with wsl –install -d, list them with wsl -l -v, and pick the default with wsl –set-default. Each one has its own files and accounts.

Where does Windows keep my Ubuntu files?

In a virtual disk file named ext4.vhdx inside your AppData folder. Microsoft warns against changing WSL files in AppData with Windows tools because that can corrupt the distribution. Use \\wsl$ in File Explorer instead.

Can I use Ubuntu on WSL together with VirtualBox or VMware?

Yes, with current versions. Microsoft says VirtualBox 6 and later and recent VMware releases support running alongside Hyper-V, which WSL 2 relies on.

With Ubuntu installed and updated, a good next step is to bookmark Microsoft’s basic commands for WSL and practice the commands in the table above in a folder you created yourself.