Microsoft Open Sources Windows Subsystem for Linux After Nearly a Decade

Microsoft has officially open-sourced the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), nearly 10 years after its debut.

The code is now live on GitHub under the Microsoft/WSL repository, giving developers the ability to download, build, and contribute directly to the tool that enables Linux distributions to run natively on Windows.

The open-source release includes key components like wsl.exe, wslg.exe, and the Linux-enabling binaries—though some parts, such as the WSL 1 driver lxcore.sys and certain file system modules, remain closed.

“It took us a little bit of time, because we needed to refactor the operating system to allow WSL to live in a standalone capacity that then allowed us to open-source the project and be able to have developers go and make contributions and for us to ingest those into the Windows pipeline and ship it at scale," Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices, at Microsoft, Pavan Davuluri, told The Verge.

WSL debuted at Build 2016 with Windows 10 Anniversary Update, using lxcore.sys to run ELF binaries and Linux syscalls natively—now known as WSL 1, which remains supported.

The latest 2.5.7 version now ships with Windows 11 24H2, featuring improved networking, GPU acceleration, and systemd support.