DevelopmentWSLManager

About this project

The goal of this project was to create a script which makes it ease to quickly create a new, seperate WSL instance.
You can use this script to quickly create a WSL instance which can be used e.g. for a specific project with its special dependencies.
Afterwards you can delete the instance and keep a (relatively) clean operating system.

Features

• Quickly create a new WSL instance from a .tar image
• Quickly remove/unregister existing WSL instances

Installation

• Download/Install WSL according to this page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
• Download the current script from this repository

Create a new WSL instance

Get an image

Option 1: create an image from an exisiting installation

wsl --export <NAME> <path-for-the-new-image>.tar

Option 2: download an image from Microsoft

• Visit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-manual
• Download the .appx file for your desired distro
• Change the file extension from .appx to .zip
• Locate the install.tar.gz file
• Extract install.tar.gz (you should get an install.tar file)
• Copy (and if you want rename) install.tar to your desired location

Option 3: use a custom tar

Use the process described here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/use-custom-distro

Create a folder

Create a folder in which you want to install the WSL instance

Start the script

Start the powershell script and follow the included instructions
NOTE: Your image has to be compatible with the selected WSL version

Delete an exisiting WSL instance

Start the script

Start the powershell script and follow the included instructions

Disclaimer

See LICENSE. I am not affiliated with Microsoft. This project merely exists to facilitate the creation (and deletion) of WSL instances to make development much easier and faster.