Microsoft is rolling out Linux container support to WSL

Microsoft is rolling out Linux container support to WSL

By Mayank Parmar
Publication Date: 2026-09-30 00:40:00

Microsoft is taking Windows Subsystem for Linux beyond just running Linux distributions, as WSL Containers is now generally available.

You can get the feature by running wsl --update, and once installed, there’s a new wslc.exe command-line tool.

Microsoft also includes container.exe as an alias, so you can use more familiar container commands.

“WSL containers CLI: wslc.exe to directly build, run and deploy Linux containers on Windows, or use its built-in alias container.exe to run the same familiar container commands,” Microsoft explained.

There’s also a WSL Containers API, which allows Windows apps to programmatically launch and interact with Linux containers.

“Access functions to run Linux containers programmatically in your native Windows apps – unlocking scenarios like running local AI workloads or using cloud-based containerized applications locally,” Microsoft noted.

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