Microsoft has shipped WSL containers to general availability, letting developers build, run and deploy Linux containers directly on Windows. Install with wsl --update, and you get the wslc.exe CLI (with a container.exe alias for familiar commands) plus an API for driving Linux containers programmatically from native Windows apps, which Microsoft pitches for running local AI workloads or cloud-based containerized apps on a laptop.

What arrived with GA:

  • Lifecycle and networking commands: wslc container restart, wslc container cp, wslc system info, wslc network connect and disconnect, wslc events, container health checks, --stop-timeout, --mount, and a configurable storage path for the default session.
  • Enterprise controls: the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint plugin for WSL now surfaces container process, file and network activity joined to the Windows host, while Intune can enable or disable WSL containers and restrict image pulls to an approved registry allow list.
  • Ecosystem support: wslc is now a driver for VS Code dev containers, Aspire treats it as a first-class container runtime, and community projects such as Lazywslc and WSL Container Desktop manage it from a TUI and a WinUI 3 app.
  • Roadmap: wslc compose is the top feature request and the next focus, aiming for wsl compose up against existing compose.yaml files unchanged. Microsoft also reports up to 2x faster access to Windows files from Linux environments and a new consomme network mode.

Related: Microsoft Unveils GitHub Copilot Desktop App, Frontier Tuning, and AI-Native Developer Tools

WSL containers is now generally available