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Bring Ubuntu commands to Windows 10 with WSL

Tram Ho

What is WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux (abbreviated WSL) is an optional feature of Windows 10 that allows users to run most Linux commands right on the computer with the Windows operating system installed, through the Kernel Interface compatible with Linux because Microsoft develops without parallel installation or virtual machine installation. From there can save quite a bit of system resources. If you haven’t used Unix or Linux before, this is an opportunity to get acquainted with bash on windows.

Request

  • According to my research, WSL is only available on 64-bit version of Windows 10
  • Windows with update # 16215 or higher, to check the current version you can refer here

Install WSL

Step 1: Open PowerShell with Adminstrator rights by right-clicking on the windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen, select Windows PowerShell (Admin) and run the following command to enable WSL:

Select Y to restart the computer

Step 2: There are many “versions” running the Linux kernel for you to choose, in this article I choose Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and I recommend that anyone new to the Linux kernel operating system should start with Ubuntu

Open Microsoft store , search with keyword Ubuntu 18.04 and select Install , then select Lauch

Use:

  • Method 1: Search Ubuntu in the windows search section
  • Method 2: Open Command Prompt / Power Shell and type bash

Step 3: Enter the username and password to create a new account for the Linux kernel

Try running some commands

So I can run the linux command right on windows, to move to the hard drive on windows we use the command cd /mnt/c with c is the name of the drive

If you are wondering where is the home directory of the wsl we just installed it, it’s here

C:UsersuserAppDataLocalPackagesCanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu18.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgscLocalStaterootfshome

Open Run by pressing Windows + R and then copy and paste the following link, then select OK

Install ZSH

ZSH was first introduced in 1990 by Paul Falstad, a bash extension that adds a lot of functions and utilities, supports many plugins (such as git, osx, ruby, rben …) to help work be productive. Higher than for example with git plugin I can easily know which branch I’m working on without having to use git branch .

In addition, zsh has an oh-my-zsh plugin to help the interface become more cool and beautiful when supporting a lot of themes and for users to customize the interface as they want, currently I am using an agnoster theme.

Begin installation

Install zsh

Install oh-my-zsh

  • Clone the Oh My Zsh Respo

  • Create the ZSH config file and install the theme (the theme I use is the agnoster theme, you can refer to other themes here )

  • Go to the section ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell" and replace robbyrussell with agnoster

So, we have an additional choice to use Linux bash on Windows without having to install the full version of Linux via a virtual machine, right?

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