Windows 10 S Built In Linux Kernel Is Now Available To Insiders

Microsoft has recently rolled out Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18917 to Fast Ring Insiders. As we reported earlier, this build brings a new Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

You can now run Linux programs on Windows with the help of a built-in Linux kernel included in WSL 2. As expected, WSL 2 is one step ahead of WSL 1 and offers better performance as compared to its predecessor.

Microsoft explained that WSL 2 offers a lightweight virtual machine by utilizing Hyper-V features. The Hyper-V functionality is not currently offered to Windows 10 Home users.

Surprisingly, WSL 2 will be available to Windows 10 Home users as well. Microsoft believes that WSL 2 will improve system performance as well as the compatibility with Linux programs.

WSL 2 eats less memory

As far as the background memory consumption is concerned, Microsoft promises to keep it at a minimum level. Moving further, it’s easy to shut down the background Virtual Machine via the wsl –shutdown command.

You can check out the complete documentation and install guide for WSL 2 by visiting the official Windows Command Line blog.

Furthermore, the recent Fast Insider build also brings new download throttling options. Microsoft explains in its blog post:

Many Windows 10 users are waiting for the release of Windows 10 20H1 due to its amazing features.

We’ve heard from our users with very low connection speeds that setting download throttling as a percentage of available bandwidth isn’t providing enough relief in reducing the impact on their networks. That’s why we’ve added a new option to throttle the bandwidth used by Delivery Optimization as an absolute value.

Microsoft plans to release WSL2 as a part of Windows 10 19H2. However, there is a slight possibility that Microsoft delays this feature until the release of 20H1 next year.

You can explore the new WSL 2 functionality by enrolling in the Windows Insider Program.

WSL 2 eats less memory#

WSL 2 eats less memory