On Windows 10, you can
install multiple Linux distributions using WSL2
(Windows Subsystem for Linux 2). The only caveat is that the first one you install will be the default automatically, which means you cannot run your preferred distro with certain commands (such as
wsl
) out-of-the-box if you installed another distro before the one you like.
However, if you want to use another Linux distribution, WSL includes a command to set any distro as the new default on
Windows 10
.
In this
guide
, you will learn the steps to make your preferred distro the new default on Windows 10.
Set default Linux distro on WSL2
To set a Linux distro as the default on Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, use these steps:
Open
Start
on Windows 10.
Search for
Command Prompt
, right-click the top result, and select the
Run as administrator
option.
Type the following command to view a list of all available distros and press
Enter
:
Type the following command to set a distro as the new default and press
Enter
:
In the command, replace
“DISTRO-NAME”
with the name of the distro to set it as default (see
step 3
). For example, this command makes Kali Linux the default distro:
Once you complete the steps, the distro will be set as the new default on Windows 10, so when you run a command like
wsl
, Kali will run by default (in this case).