How to Uninstall WSL on Windows 11 & Windows 10? See a Guide!

About WSL

Windows Subsystem for Linux, also known as WSL, is a feature in Windows operating system that is primarily designed for developers, especially web developers. WSL enables you to run a Linux system with Linux command-line tools and GUI apps on Windows 11/10. This won’t break anything important on your PC.

In the earlier time, Microsoft released the first version – Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) that supports a direct translation between Linux and Windows. While WSL2 uses a lightweight virtual machine to integrate it into your Windows workflow. Any Linux distribution can run on either the WSL 1 or WSL 2 architecture, which depends on their configuration.

To run a Linux system on Windows 10/11, you need to install WSL and here a related post is helpful – How to Install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Windows 11.

When anything goes wrong or you no longer need to use this platform, you may want to uninstall WSL. Well then, can you uninstall WSL from your computer? It is possible and just follow the guide below now.

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How to Uninstall WSL on Windows 10/11

How to uninstall WSL on Windows 11/10? It is not easy to completely remove WSL from your PC since this isn’t similar to uninstalling a program. You need to do three steps – delete the Linux distro, uninstall other components and disable this platform. Do the operations about WSL uninstall Ubuntu in order:

Step 1: Uninstall Linux Distro

1. In Windows 11/10, press Win + I at the same time to open Settings.

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2. Go to Apps > Apps & features.

3. Choose a Linux distribution like Ubuntu and click Uninstall (Windows 10). For Windows 11, click the three dots and click Uninstall. Then, click Uninstall again to confirm the operation.

Step 2: Delete Windows Subsystem for Linux Components

After uninstalling the Linux distribution from Windows 11/10, other elements of the Windows Subsystem for Linux functionality should be also removed.

1. In the Settings window, go to App > Apps & features.

2. Choose Windows Subsystem for Linux WSLg Preview and click Uninstall > Uninstall. In Windows 11, you need to click three dots and click Uninstall.

3. Find Windows Subsystem for Linux Update and uninstall it.

Step 3: Disable Windows Subsystem for Linux

This is the last step you should do and see what you should do:

1. In Windows 11, click Apps > Optional features and click More Windows features under the Related settings section to open the Windows Features In Windows 10, navigate to Apps > Apps & features > Option features > More Windows features.

2. In the Windows Features interface, locate Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux, then uncheck the boxes of these two options.

3. Click OK to save the changes and restart your computer.

After the restart, you completely uninstall WSL on Windows 11/10. If you change your mind and want to run a Linux distribution like Ubuntu, you can still reinstall WSL on your computer.