Microsoft has announced the creation of a graphical configurator for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), a layer for running Linux applications on Windows. The app is called WSL Settings GUI, and it will simplify the configuration of WSL to your needs. Specially, it allow you to manage and view various WSL parameters without the need to manually edit the ".wslconfig" file.
The main problem with ".wslconfig" is the difficulty in understanding what settings are available and what values can be set in them. The graphical configurator presents all possible options, which will be grouped into categories. There will be hints if this or option is applicable to the current configuration and system. Obviously, you will still be able to configure WSL via the ".wslconfig" file, so you can simultaneously use both the GUI and the text configuration file.
Other changes to WSL include the addition of settings that were previously marked as experimental. In particular, the following settings are included: "autoMemoryReclaim=dropCache" for automatically returning freed memory back to Windows and "dnsTunneling=true" for DNS tunneling in Windows 11.
Among the experimental features, the option "wsl --manage <distro> --set-sparse <true/false>" has been added to automatically return unused disk space to the host system. There is also the parameter "networkingMode=mirrored" to enable the network mirroring mode required to support IPv6.
A plugin for WSL has been added to Microsoft Defender, allowing you to use Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to monitor WSL environments. In addition, Microsoft provides a WSL agent that will allow you to manage settings through InTune.
In the future, the Redmond firm will also add the ability to use the Dev Home dashboard to manage and launch WSL environments.
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