Is there someway to forceably completely wipe WSL and start over?

Question

So I installed WSL with Ubuntu and everything seemed fine. Then I discovered my company had a custom Ubuntu image that they want us to use. So I attempted to uninstall what I already had and start over.

Long story short several attempts later including repeated uninstalls, it "works", but not completely. My colleagues who installed it on their machine do not have these issues, but for me a) it won't run / bring me to the WSL shell unless I run it elevated in Windows (with admin permissions) and b) I cannot access the WSL file system from Explorer (says "\wsl.localhost is not accessible..." ) I haven't needed to use it much beyond just this stuff for now but we are going to be ramping up some stuff on it and I am afraid there are undiscovered issues in my installation which will eventually prevent me from doing the work I'll need to do.

Is there some more forceful way to completely purge WSL from the system so that I can start again clean? More than uninstalling WSL from the Windows control panel? I feel at this point something is probably corrupted hence my issues. Really if I could I would just wipe the computer, reinstall Windows and then install WSL again from scratch, but this is not practical for me for a variety of reasons.

It is Windows 10 Enterprise Edition, if that matters.

Answer 1

Hello Marty McGee,

Thank you for posting in Q&A forum.

You could try to reset or reinstall WSL on your device.

Resetting WSL

1. Reset a Specific Linux Distribution:

• Open Settings.

• Go to Apps > Installed apps.

• Find the Linux distribution you want to reset, click the three-dot menu, and select Advanced options.

• Click the Reset button.

2. Unregister a Linux Distribution:

• Open Command Prompt as an administrator.

• List all installed distributions: powershell wsl --list --verbose

• Unregister the distribution you want to reset: powershell wsl --unregister <distribution_name>

Reinstalling WSL

1. Disable WSL and Virtual Machine Platform:

• Open Windows Features by searching for "Windows Features" in the Start menu.

• Uncheck Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform.

• Click OK and restart your computer.

2. Re-enable WSL and Virtual Machine Platform:

• Open Windows Features again.

• Check Windows Subsystem for Linux and Virtual Machine Platform.

• Click OK and restart your computer.

3. Install a Linux Distribution:

• Open Microsoft Store.

• Search for your preferred Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, Debian).

• Click Install.

For more detailed instructions, you can refer to the official Microsoft guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install.

I hope the information above is helpful.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know.

Best Regards,

Daisy Zhou

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Answer 2

Hello, even after step1 wsl.exe is in te sysetm32 folder. After re-installing the features. it hangs while typing wsl --shutdown. Can you tell how wsl.exe can be deleted after uninstalling for a new fresh install. appreciated