Microsoft: WSL Containers Is Generally Available with New CLI, API & Enterprise Controls

Microsoft has officially made WSL containers generally available, giving Windows developers a native way to build, run and deploy Linux containers directly through Windows Subsystem for Linux. The GA release arrives with a new command-line interface, API support and additional controls for enterprise environments.

WSL containers gets new commands and capabilities

The update is available by running wsl –update in Terminal or by installing the latest WSL release from GitHub. The release adds wslc.exe, which lets developers build, run and deploy Linux containers on Windows. Microsoft also provides a container.exe alias for familiar container commands.

Developers can also use the new WSL containers API from native Windows applications. Microsoft says this opens the door to scenarios such as running local AI workloads and using cloud-based containerized applications locally.

The GA release adds several new commands, including wslc container restart for restarting containers and wslc container cp for copying files in and out. There is also wslc system info for viewing the container environment, along with new networking commands for connecting and disconnecting containers.

WSL containers also gains health checks, configurable storage locations, mount support and real-time container activity through wslc events.

Microsoft adds enterprise security controls

Microsoft is also expanding WSL’s enterprise management capabilities. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint can now surface process, file and network activity from WSL containers and connect that activity back to the Windows host.

Microsoft Intune gets controls for enabling or disabling WSL containers and restricting container image pulls to approved registries. This gives organizations a way to control which container sources developers can use. Microsoft is already looking beyond the GA launch. The company says wslc compose is its top requested feature, with the goal of allowing existing compose.yaml files to work with wsl compose up without changes.

Microsoft is also investigating improvements to WSL networking and cross-OS file performance, while the new consomme network mode is designed to improve compatibility for container workloads.