Cannot see ubuntu folders

Question

Cannot see ubuntu folders

Afdez 0

Hello,

I've installed Ubuntu24.04 in 2 Windows 11 Home (v10.0.26200) computers. In one of them, I have no problems browsing the Ubuntu folder from Explorer, but the other does not show any of the ubuntu folders. I have tried the following:

*Enable SMB1.0

*Installong and configuring Samba

*Changing to an automatic startup the following services: Function Discovery Provider Host, Function Discovery Resources Publication, SSDP Discovery, UPnP Device Host.

Yet nothing worked. The only difference that I see between both computers is that one has McAfee (firewall & antivirus) and the other not.

Thanks.

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2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Carl-L 19,500 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hello Afdez,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum.

The McAfee might be relevant here, may I know if it happens in the affected computer or in the normal one? Anyway, you could just disable it to check.

Also, if you are running Ubuntu 24.02 under WSL2, the system will expose the Ubuntu folder under a special path of \wsl$ or \wsl.localhost instead of SMB/Samba. In this case, please help me do a little check.

Open PowerShell as administrator in the affected PC.
Type explorer.exe \wsl$ and let me know the exact error message.

Also, please help me compare the output of wsl --version and wsl -l -v on the 2 computers. Lastly, please open Ubuntu on the affected PC and open the explorer.exe. There, please type \wsl$ and \wsl.localhost to see if either of these works (1 is enough)?

I'm waiting for your reply.

Afdez 0 Reputation points

2026-07-23T12:51:41.8833333+00:00
Hi Carl-L,

When I run the explorer.exe command, it simply opens a window pointed to OneDrive>user>Documents.

For the affected computed, the outputs are:

WSL version: 2.2.4.0 Kernel version: 5.15.153.1-2 WSLg version: 1.0.61 MSRDC version: 1.2.5326 Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511 DXCore version: 10.0.26091.1-240325-1447.ge-release Windows version: 10.0.26200.8875

NAME STATE VERSION

docker-desktop Stopped 2

Ubuntu Running 2

For the computer working fine:

WSL version: 2.6.3.0

Kernel version: 6.6.87.2-1

WSLg version: 1.0.71

MSRDC version: 1.2.6353

Direct3D version: 1.611.1-81528511

DXCore version: 10.0.26100.1-240331-1435.ge-release

Windows version: 10.0.26200.8875

and

NAME STATE VERSION

Ubuntu Running 2

So the non-working one seems to be using docker (for some reason). Maybe that is preventing the access to the folders.

Thanks.

P.S. The |wsl commands don't seem to work.
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Carl-L 19,500 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-24T13:28:42.2866667+00:00

Hello Afdez,

Thanks for replying.

I'll see what I can do. I'll keep you updated.
Carl-L 19,500 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-25T13:16:35.3+00:00

Hello Afdez,

Thanks for replying.

I wouldn't think that the Docker is an issue. However, I noticed that the affected computer is running an older WSL package, which could be an issue. In this case, can you please try to update the package first?

I'm waiting for your reply.
Carl-L 19,500 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-28T10:15:08.5666667+00:00

Hello Afdez,

Just checking in to make sure that you have received my reply. Please let me know if you have any updates.
Afdez 0 Reputation points

2026-07-28T11:12:50.6466667+00:00

Hi Carl-L,

Sorry but there were some unforeseen circumstances and I didn't see your message until last hour. I checked the affected computer again (wsl --status) which returned (Default Distribution: docker-desktop). At the end, I decided to just ftp files (like if the Linux partion were an out-of-premises system), and will eventually remove the wsl/Linux and reinstall it making sure that it doesn't use docker.

Thanks.
Carl-L 19,500 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-29T12:32:35.7+00:00

Hello Afdez,

Thanks for letting me know.

If you still need help in any other questions, feel free to ask.

Answer 2

Craig Long 18,520

I don't know a lot about Linux. Have you created separate partitions for Windows and Linux? Format the Windows partition in NTFS and Linux in Ext4. BitLocker poses a problem for Linux, so separate drives should work best.

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Craig Long 18,520 Reputation points

2026-07-22T23:09:21.51+00:00

Put your files on an external drive formatted in ExFAT. It's very compatible with both operating systems.