Development-Environment in Windows 10 with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Step 1 - Install WSL

Download and install the latest Windows 10 Creators Update. Right Click Windows Start -> Settings -> Apps -> Apps & features -> Programs and Features -> Turn Windows features on or off.

Select Checkbox Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Enable Windows Subsystem for Linux

Alternatively you can enter following command in PowerShell to enable WSL:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

In the Microsoft Store select the WSL-Version of your liking and install it.

MS Store - Select WSL

You can install more than one Linux-Distribution and select a default:

Start CMD in Windows
Type wslconfig /l which lists all installed Linux distributions.
Type wslconfig /setdefault <DistributionName> for selecting the default.

Step 2 - Install Hyper

Hyper is a Terminal Emulator for Windows. Download and install Hyper in Windows. Open Hyper and select Edit -> Preferences. Change in the File hyper.js following:

shell: 'C:\\Windows\\System32\\bash.exe'

Now the default Command-Line for Hyper is the WSL-Bash. Close Hyper, open CMD and enter hyper install hyper-snazzy for installing a theme.

Step 3 - Install VcXsrv

VcXsrv is a X-Server for Windows. We can use it for Open Graphic-Applications from WSL in Windows. Download and install VcXsrv in Windows. Start VcXsrv with xlaunch.exe. Do now following steps:

Configuration Step 1: Select Multiple windows

XLaunch multiple windows

Configuration Step 2: Select Start no client and Primary Selection
Configuration Step 3: Select Clipboard. Unselect Primary Selection, Native opengl and Disable access control. We will use real OpenGL in Linux.

XLaunch Extra Settings

Configuration Step 4: Press the Button Save configuration and save under the filename C:\opt\wsl\config.xlaunch. Press the Button Finish and the XLaunch system tray icon in Windows appears.

In order to do not this configurations steps again before each launching, we create a shortcut on the Windows Desktop with following preferences:

XLaunch Properties

Target: C:\opt\VcXsrv\xlaunch.exe -run C:\opt\wsl\config.xlaunch
Start in: C:\opt\VcXsrv

C:\opt\VcXsrv is the Windows-Folder i have installed VcXsrv.

Step 4 - Install Graphical Environment

Connect with Hyper in WSL.

sudo echo "export DISPLAY=:0" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install nemo
sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev libswt-gtk-3-java

With installing the filemanager nemo all necessary UI-Libaries will be installed.

Step 5 - Shortcuts in Windows

To start the WSL programs directly in Windows some shortcuts on the desktop are useful.

Step 1: Create a folder C:\opt\wsl

Step 2: Create a file named bat-launcher.vbs in C:\opt\wsl with following content:

If WScript.Arguments.Count <= 0 Then
    WScript.Quits
End If	

bat = Left(WScript.ScriptFullName, InStrRev(WScript.ScriptFullName, "\")) & WScript.Arguments(0) & ".bat"
arg = ""

If WScript.Arguments.Count > 1 Then
    arg = WScript.Arguments(1)
End If

CreateObject("WScript.Shell").Run """" & bat & """ """ & arg & """", 0, False

Step 3: Create a file named nemo.bat in C:\opt\wsl with following content:

C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe -c "export DISPLAY=:0 && nemo"

Step 4: On the windows desktop create a new shortcut and browse to the location C:\opt\wsl\nemo.bat

Step 5: Right click on the shortcut and edit the properties as follows:

WSL Nemo Properties

Target: C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "C:\opt\wsl\bat-launcher.vbs" "nemo"

The bat-launcher.vbs script prevent showing up a console window.

Now you can open the Nemo-Filemanager from the Linux-Distribution in Windows.

WSL Nemo