Windows Defender Firewall supports Windows Subsystem for Linux

Windows 10 and Linux are actually really good friends. The Windows Subsystem for Linux is already available on Windows 10 and Microsoft recently brought Linux to IoT devices through the Azure Sphere OS.

The latest Windows 10 Redstone 5 build brings a new interesting feature that will further enhance the Windows-Linux symbiosis.  Long story short, Windows Defender Firewall now supports WSL.

Microsoft explains that you can now add specific rules for a WSL process in the Windows Defender Firewall. The steps to follow are exactly the same for any Windows process. The list of improvements doesn’t end here as Windows Defender Firewall now supports notifications for WSL processes as well.

For example, when a Linux tool wants to allow access to a port from the outside (like SSH or a web server like nginx), the Windows Defender Firewall will prompt to allow access just like it would for a Windows process when the port starts accepting connections.

We’re sure developers will really appreciate these new features. Taking into account Microsoft’s interest for Linux, we expect the upcoming Windows 10 builds to bring additional features that will further improve the Windows-Linux symbiosis.

Windows 10 build 17650 also introduces a new Fluent Design UI for Windows Defender Security Center. The app now dynamically resizes the spacing and padding of the categories from on the main page in order to display extra information whenever necessary.

To read more about these new features, check out Microsoft’s blog post.

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