Windows Subsystem for Linux now supports Linux applications with GUI

Microsoft Build 2021 : Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) now includes support for applications to leverage your GPU on Windows.

Admin

May 25, 2021

As part of Build 2021, Microsoft announced a public release of support for Linux GUI applications in the second-generation Windows for Linux (WSL) subsystem. Recall that this feature was announced a few months ago and until now was available as a preview.

In this way, developers will now be able to run Linux-based GUI applications in the Windows 10 operating system using the Windows for Linux (WSL) subsystem. These apps will be added to the Start menu, and they can be launched at the touch of a button. This feature is expected to help developers create cross-platform applications.

To support our developers who build on Windows, we are excited to announce new features in our developer tool offerings that provide increased satisfaction and productivity. You can now use GUI app support on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) so that all the tools and workflows of Linux run on your developer machine. Windows allows you to work with seamless integrations with any workflow with GUI apps, Linux and GPU-accelerated ML training.

Along with this, there are several exciting Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) announcements at Microsoft Build this year. Firstly, WSL now includes support for applications to leverage your GPU on Windows, allowing you to run your Linux AI and Machine Learning scenarios directly inside of WSL.

The second major WSL announcement is that we have added support for Linux GUI apps in WSL, which makes it possible to run your favorite Linux editors, tools, utilities and applications. This will greatly improve your ability to build, test, debug and run Linux applications. Once you’ve installed GUI app support, you’ll be able to open a WSL window and start a Linux GUI app right away, without the need to set up an X Server each time.

Optimizations for Windows Terminal

There is the newer version of Windows Terminal 1.9 Preview. It has a new feature called Quake Mode that allows you to open a new terminal window with a simple keyboard shortcut from anywhere in Windows. Moreover, the terminal has a new settings UI that gives you the ability to edit your settings without using a JSON file.

User can set default terminal emulator to Windows Terminal inside Windows, meaning that any command line application will automatically launch inside Windows Terminal rather than the traditional console experience. Before this setting, all command line applications opened in the original console. You can also check the bunch of new features introduce with Windows Terminal 1.9 preview.