WSL-DistroLauncher Automatically enable WSL on first install

After reading some of the comments received for the Debian store app, I think it would benefit our users greatly to not have to follow the manual enablement mechanism for fist users of wsl.

Could we integrate a check in the launcher to see if the wsl optional windows feature has been enabled already, and if not, to show a user friendly pop-up?

This would lower the barrier for non-technical users significantly.

Mar 16 '18 22:03 rhaist

This is a good suggestion. The problem is that enabling the optional component requires admin and requires rebooting the machine. Doing this from a store app is problematic.

Mar 16 '18 22:03 benhillis

But still a suggestion or a link to an how-to would be highly appreciated. Or find a way to enable the flag and then ask for explicit reboot.

I second the idea to lower down the barrier. Would make WSL definitely a game changer.

Mar 26 '18 20:03 julianxhokaxhiu

@julianxhokaxhiu - There is already a link that is displayed: https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL-DistroLauncher/blob/e9a4504514223b27624eedaf4fdc8708cfdbaecd/DistroLauncher/messages.mc#L79

Mar 26 '18 20:03 benhillis

@benhillis Sure that this one works? There are many complains in the Microsoft Store about an unknown error and I also remember that I got that when I first set it up.

Mar 26 '18 22:03 levrik

@levrik - if it doesn't work for you let me know and I can investigate. That's how I enable the subsystem on my test machines.

Mar 26 '18 22:03 benhillis

@benhillis No. Enabling the subsystem and installing everything works perfect. But this error message doesn't seem to work if the subsystem is still disabled. It shows some cryptic error instead. At least when I set it up for the first time and there are also a few (or many?) complains on the Microsoft Store about this error.

Mar 27 '18 18:03 levrik

@levrik - This errors on the Microsoft Store are from a previous version of this sample that did not have proper error checking or error strings.

Mar 27 '18 21:03 benhillis

@benhillis ah, okay. good to know. then there should be no issue with that message 🙂

Mar 28 '18 19:03 levrik

However, according to my observation, some people just do as follows:

Install a Linux "app" from the Store without reading any attention message (Yes, just clicking the download button and waiting for it completed).
Open the Linux "app" and find the error message.
Uninstall the Linux "app" and rate it 1 star in the store.
Tell others not to use the Linux "apps" from the store because he/she thinks it buggy.

Mar 29 '18 08:03 cpus133525