I was fooling around a bit with the Linux/Bash subsystem for Win10.

But then I decided to stay with Cygwin for now. So I uninstalled it - or thought I did.

Now I've installed Cygwin and put its bin directory first in the PATH.

In cmd.exe , when I type bash , it will start the Cygwin's Bash.

But when I do Win+R and type bash, I still get the prompt:

Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
…bla-bla-bla…

How do I get rid of the Linux/Bash subsystem entirely, so it will instead pick up Cygwin's Bash from the PATH?

0

7 Answers

If your OS has been upgraded to the Fall Creators Update, you should be able to issue the command wslconfig.

You could of course try uninstalling first by using the command lxrun /uninstall /full.

If its still there, you can try unregistering the distro:

• First you need to know which distro is installed by using

  wslconfig /l

• From the list choose the distro (e.g. Ubuntu) you want to uninstall and type the command

  wslconfig /u Ubuntu

3

In order to disable WSL, one has to go back into

Control Panel -> programs-features -> turn on/off Windows features and deselect Windows Subsystem for Linux, and Save.

2

Edit - This would only work on Windows Server, not on Client OS.

Similar to what Rop suggested, but you can also use Powershell to completely remove the Windows Subsystem for Linux, with the advantage of not having to look for it in Control Panel. Note that you will have to run this as an administrator.

Remove-WindowsFeature Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

List all the features available, filtering for Linux:

Get-WindowsFeature | Where-Object Name -like '*linux*' | Select-Object Name

2

I combined removing Ubuntu-18.04

wslconfig /l
wslconfig /u 'Ubuntu-18.04'

and with adding and launching Ubuntu-20.04 from the Windows store to successfully get WSL 2.0 running again it stopped working. I was getting

[process exited with code 4294967295] 

when I launched wsl 2.

Just a few notes for experimenters, but for Windows 10 client o/s, you can use the following:

 (Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName '*linux*') | Select-Object FeatureName

Then:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

Or the analogue:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

You can use other tooling to the same affect, such as dism.exe (as illustrated here: )

Windows 10:

• search: "optional features" (-> manage optional features)
• second last entry on page: more windows features
• second last entry: WSL

I can't seem to get a clean uninstall of WSL. I had WSl2 installed and was having DNS problems so I wanted to uninstall everything and go back to WSL 1.

I turn off the feature, delete the distros, delete the "WSL update app", make sure HyperVisor and Windows Subsystem for Linux are disabled in "Programs and Features", and reboot.

It looks like it's uninstalled.

But then when I try to install the minimum WSL again (ie just enabling WSL in Windows Programs and Features, rebooting, and downloading a distro, when I launch the distro I get

"... WLS 2 requires an update to its kernel component.."

Why is it complaining about WSL2? I'm just trying to install WSL1? My guess is that there is some registry bit or something that still makes it look like I'm trying to use WSL 2.

Any ideas on how to get a truly clean uninstall of WSL so I can get back to version 1?

1

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