Linux containers now run natively on Windows via WSL

Published Sep 30, 2026, 12:12 PM EDT Viraj Gawde is a Tech Journalist with bylines at Travel+Leisure India & South Asia, Android Headlines, 91Mobiles, Croma Unboxed, etc. He has written thousands of news pieces, how-to guides, product comparisons, listicles, and op-eds on consumer tech. Currently, Viraj is obsessed with the fast-evolving world of artificial intelligence and how it is reshaping the way we work, create, and use tech. As a curious generalist, Viraj's work extends into a wide range of subjects, formats, and storytelling styles. When away from desk, he is a finance, sports, and travel geek with a constant curiosity for new experiences. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Linux is an important part of modern development, and Windows users often rely on a separate app like Docker Desktop to get started. Now, Microsoft is making it easier to run Linux containers on its operating system through Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). The feature was first showcased at Build 2026 and entered public preview in June. Now, it’s available for everyone with the latest WSL update. Windows users can run Linux containers directly What this means for Linux workloads For those unfamiliar with containers, they are lightweight, isolated environments that hold an app and everything like files and tools it needs to run, so everything works the same on any machine. They’re widely used for software development, cloud applications, AI workloads, and testing. Till now, Linux containers meant installing third-party software. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is Microsoft’s built-in way of running Linux on a Windows PC. By running the wsl --update command in a terminal, users can get access to the wslc.exe command-line tool, as well as the container.exe alias. These can be used to build, run, and manage containers from Windows. Users can also grab the latest build from GitHub. Microsoft has added several new features to WSL containers, such as restarting containers, copying files in and out, running health checks, monitoring container activity in real-time, configuring storage locations, and additional networking controls. These make WSL containers practical for everyday development. There’s also a WSL containers API that lets regular Windows apps launch Linux containers. Microsoft highlights local AI workloads and cloud-based applications as potential uses. WSL containers are getting support from the company’s partners and the wider developer community. VS Code dev containers can use wslc as a default driver, for example, while Aspire can treat it as a container runtime. Microsoft says that it aims to make Linux on Windows a broader platform for AI and cloud-native workloads. Compose support for WSL containers is one of the top requests and the company is already working on it. With the addition of WSL containers, Microsoft is bringing another major part of Linux development closer to the Windows desktop. Source: Windows DevBlog