https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config

.wslconfig

• Stored in your%UserProfile%directory.
• Used to configure settings globally across all installed Linux distributions running as the WSL 2 version.Can be usedonly for distributions run by WSL 2.
• Distributions running as WSL 1 will not be affected by this configuration as they are not running as a virtual machine.
• To get to your%UserProfile%directory, in PowerShell, usecd ~to access your home directory (which is typically your user profile,C:\Users\<UserName>) or you can open Windows File Explorer and enter%UserProfile%in the address bar. The directory path should look something like:C:\Users\<UserName>\.wslconfig.WSL will detect the existence of these files, read the contents, and automatically apply the configuration settings every time you launch WSL. If the file is missing or malformed (improper markup formatting), WSL will continue to launch as normal without the configuration settings applied.

Check which version of WSL you are running.

Note

Adjusting per-distribution settings with the wsl.conf file is only available in Windows Build 17093 and later.

Configuration setting for .wslconfig

The .wslconfig file configures settings globally for all Linux distributions running with WSL 2.(For per-distribution configuration seewsl.conf).

See.wslconfigfor info on where to store the .wslconfig file.

Note

Global configuration options with.wslconfigis only available for distributions running as WSL 2 in Windows Build 19041 and later. Keep in mind you may need to runwsl --shutdownto shut down the WSL 2 VM and then restart your WSL instance for these changes to take affect.

This file can contain the following options that affect the VM that powers any WSL 2 distribution:

Section label:[wsl2]

Entries with thepathvalue must be Windows paths with escaped backslashes, e.g:C:\\Temp\\myCustomKernel

Entries with thesizevalue must be a size followed by a unit, for example8GBor512MB.

Entries with an * after the value type are only available on Windows 11.

Example .wslconfig file

The.wslconfigsample file below demonstrates some of the configuration options available. In this example, the file path isC:\Users\<UserName>\.wslconfig.

# Settings apply across all Linux distros running on WSL 2
[wsl2]
 
# Limits VM memory to use no more than 4 GB, this can be set as whole numbers using GB or MB
memory=4GB
 
# Sets the VM to use two virtual processors
processors=2
 
# Specify a custom Linux kernel to use with your installed distros. The default kernel used can be found at https://github.com/microsoft/WSL2-Linux-Kernel
kernel=C:\\temp\\myCustomKernel
 
# Sets additional kernel parameters, in this case enabling older Linux base images such as Centos 6
kernelCommandLine = vsyscall=emulate
 
# Sets amount of swap storage space to 8GB, default is 25% of available RAM
swap=8GB
 
# Sets swapfile path location, default is %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp\swap.vhdx
swapfile=C:\\temp\\wsl-swap.vhdx
 
# Disable page reporting so WSL retains all allocated memory claimed from Windows and releases none back when free
pageReporting=false
 
# Turn off default connection to bind WSL 2 localhost to Windows localhost
localhostforwarding=true
 
# Disables nested virtualization
nestedVirtualization=false
 
# Turns on output console showing contents of dmesg when opening a WSL 2 distro for debugging
debugConsole=true