how to increase memory and cpu limits for wsl2 windows 11

Question

hi people! despite the fact that I changed the Windows ~.wslconfig and /etc/wsl.conf files accordingly by adding

[wsl2]

# kernel=C:\\temp\\myCustomKernel

processors = 6 # Makes the WSL 2 VM use six virtual processors

localhostForwarding = true

# Limits VM memory to use no more than 10 GB, this can be set as whole numbers using GB or MB

memory = 10GB

still see

               total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7.4Gi 526Mi 6.9Gi 2.2Mi 226Mi 6.9Gi

as if these configuration file changes have no effect on anything, why?

Answer 1

First ensure that the .wslconfig file is defined in the Users folder e.g. C:/Users/yyurijj/.wslconfig
If you have already created the file you can skip to number 3.

1. You can use this command "notepad.exe %UserProfile%/.wslconfig" in the windows explorer address bar
   then paste the text below as the content for the file

[wsl2]
#Limits VM memory to use no more than 4 GB, this can be set as whole numbers using GB or MB
memory=4GB
#Sets the VM to use two virtual processors
processors=4

For more wsl configuration options please use this link https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#wslconfig

2. Save the file
3. Run the command "wsl --shutdown" to stop the wsl service
4. Run the command "restart-service LxssManager" in PowerShell running as administrator to restart wsl

The trick is to ensure that you shut down and restart wsl after making changes to the config file.