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| 1 | +### YamlMime:FAQ |
| 2 | +metadata: |
| 3 | + title: WSL 2 Frequently Asked Questions |
| 4 | + description: "Find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2, like 'Can I run WSL 2 on a virtual machine?'." |
| 5 | + keywords: BashOnWindows, bash, wsl, wsl2, windows, windows subsystem for linux, windowssubsystem, ubuntu, debian, suse, windows 10, install |
| 6 | + ms.date: 05/30/2019 |
| 7 | + ms.topic: article |
| 8 | + ms.assetid: 7afaeacf-435a-4e58-bff0-a9f0d75b8a51 |
| 9 | + ms.custom: seodec18 |
| 10 | + ms.localizationpriority: high |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +title: WSL 2 FAQs |
| 13 | +summary: Below is a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +sections: |
| 16 | + - name: Ignored |
| 17 | + questions: |
| 18 | + - question: | |
| 19 | + Does WSL 2 use Hyper-V? Will it be available on Windows 10 Home? |
| 20 | + answer: | |
| 21 | + WSL 2 is available on all SKUs where WSL is currently available, including Windows 10 Home. |
| 22 | + |
| 23 | + The newest version of WSL uses Hyper-V architecture to enable its virtualization. This architecture will be available in the 'Virtual Machine Platform' optional component. This optional component will be available on all SKUs. You can expect to see more details about this experience soon as we get closer to the WSL 2 release. |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | + - question: | |
| 26 | + What will happen to WSL 1? Will it be abandoned? |
| 27 | + answer: | |
| 28 | + We currently have no plans to deprecate WSL 1. You can run WSL 1 and WSL 2 distros side by side, and can upgrade and downgrade any distro at any time. Adding WSL 2 as a new architecture presents a better platform for the WSL team to deliver features that make WSL an amazing way to run a Linux environment in Windows. |
| 29 | +
|
| 30 | + - question: | |
| 31 | + Will I be able to run WSL 2 and other 3rd party virtualization tools such as VMware, or VirtualBox? |
| 32 | + answer: | |
| 33 | + Some 3rd party applications cannot work when Hyper-V is in use, which means they will not be able to run when WSL 2 is enabled, such as VMware and VirtualBox. However, recently both VirtualBox and VMware have released versions that support Hyper-V and WSL2. Learn more about [VirtualBox's changes here](https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog-6.0) and [VMware's changes here](https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2020/01/vmware-workstation-tech-preview-20h1.html). For troubleshooting issues, take a look at the [VirtualBox issue discussions in the WSL repo on GitHub](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/WSL/issues?q=is%3Aissue+virtualbox+sort%3Acomments-desc). |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | + We are consistently working on solutions to support third-party integration of Hyper-V. For example, we expose a set of APIs called [Hypervisor Platform](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/api/) that third-party virtualization providers can use to make their software compatible with Hyper-V. This lets applications use the Hyper-V architecture for their emulation such as [the Google Android Emulator](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/hyper-v-android-emulator-support/), and VirtualBox 6 and above which are both now compatible with Hyper-V. |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | + - question: | |
| 38 | + Can I access the GPU in WSL 2? Are there plans to increase hardware support? |
| 39 | + answer: | |
| 40 | + We have released support for accessing the GPU inside of WSL 2 distros! This means you can now use WSL for machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science scenarios more easily when big data sets are involved. Check out the [get started with GPU support](./tutorials/gpu-compute.md) tutorial. As of right now WSL 2 does not include serial support, or USB device support. We are investigating the best way to add these features. |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | + - question: | |
| 43 | + Will WSL 2 be able to use networking applications? |
| 44 | + answer: | |
| 45 | + Yes, in general networking applications will be faster and work better since we have full system call compatibility. However, the new architecture uses virtualized networking components. This means that in initial preview builds WSL 2 will behave more similarly to a virtual machine, e.g: WSL 2 will have a different IP address than the host machine. We are committed to making WSL 2 feel the same as WSL 1, and that includes improving our networking story. |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | + - question: | |
| 48 | + Can I run WSL 2 in a virtual machine? |
| 49 | + answer: | |
| 50 | + Yes! You need to make sure that the virtual machine has nested virtualization enabled. This can be enabled in your parent Hyper-V host by running the following command in a PowerShell window with Administrator privileges: |
| 51 | + |
| 52 | + `Set-VMProcessor -VMName <VMName> -ExposeVirtualizationExtensions $true` |
| 53 | + |
| 54 | + Make sure to replace '<VMName>' with the name of your virtual machine. |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | + - question: | |
| 57 | + Can I use wsl.conf in WSL 2? |
| 58 | + answer: | |
| 59 | + WSL 2 supports the same wsl.conf file that WSL 1 uses. This means that any configuration options that you had set in a WSL 1 distro, such as automounting Windows drives, enabling or disabling interop, changing the directory where Windows drives will be mounted, etc. will all work inside of WSL 2. You can learn more about the configuration options in WSL in the [Distro Management](./wsl-config.md) page. |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | + [1]: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog-6.0 |
| 62 | + [2]: https://docs.microsoft.com/virtualization/api/ |
| 63 | + [3]: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/visualstudio/hyper-v-android-emulator-support/ |
| 64 | + [4]: https://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2020/01/vmware-workstation-tech-preview-20h1.html |
| 65 | + |
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