How to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL

How to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL

In this article, we are going to shows how to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL. If you are interested to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL then this post is ideal for you.

Kali Linux is very popular operating system. It is a Debian derived Linux distribution that is maintained and funded by Offensive Security. It is developed for information security tasks such as Penetration Testing, Security research, Reverse Engineering and digital forensics. The official website of kali Linux is Kali.org.

 If you know that how to use Linux and it’s terminal commands, architecture system and file management then you can go with Kali Linux. And if you are not good in Linux, then you will go first start with ubuntu distribution and after sufficient practice, you could try for Kali Linux. 

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) allows you to run a GNU/Linux environment including most command-line tools, utilities, and applications directly on Windows system.

WSL2 is an improvement version of WSL. It comes with features such as file system performance boost, full system call compatibility, Managed VM, built with a new architecture, full Linux Kernel and many more.

Requirements to install WSL 2 on Windows 10:

  • Windows 10 May 2020 (2004), Windows 10 May 2019 (1903), or Windows 10 November 2019 (1909) or later
  • A computer with Hyper-V Virtualization support

With the help of WSL, you can easily install full Linux operating system in your Windows 10. You just need to enable WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) in your Windows 10 system.


How to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL

Simply follow below steps to install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL:

Step 1 : Enable WSL in Windows 10

First of all, you will need to enable WSL in your Windows system. To enable it, simply open PowerShell terminal as administrator.

Click on Start icon -> search for PowerShell -> right-click Windows PowerShell app -> choose to run as administrator.

Run-powershell

Next, run the command below in the Windows PowerShell console as show below:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

The command above will display a successful message similar as below:

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19042.985

Enabling feature(s)
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

Step 2 : Enable Virtual Machine Platform

Run the commands below from the same PowerShell console to enable the Virtual Machine platform in your Windows system:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

If you have Windows 10 version lower than 2004 in your system, use the commands below:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform -NoRestart

Next, restart your computer for changes to apply. If you forget to start then the below command doesn’t work.

After restart of your computer, launch the PowerShell as administrator again and run the commands below to set WSL 2 as the default version of WSL:

wsl --set-default-version 2

If you get an error, download and install it manually from the link below:

https://wslstorestorage.blob.core.windows.net/wslblob/wsl_update_x64.msi
install wsl2 manually

Now, run the command above again to set WSL 2 as the default version of WSL:

wsl --set-default-version 2

Step 3 : Install Kali Linux in Windows 10

At this stage, WSL 2 is installed and ready to be used. So now you can easily install Linux operating system in your Windows 10 system.

Click on the below button to download and install Kali Linux from Microsoft Windows store.

download-kali-linux-install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL

Next, click on the Get button to Download and Install kali Linux. After downloading and installing, you will get a Launch button.

Launch-kali-linux

Simply click on Launch Button and when prompt, create your account as show below :

Installing, this may take a few minutes…
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username: studiesonline
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Installation successful!

Use some troubleshooting commands when you get issues above. Run the below troubleshooting commands and launch kali Linux again:

wsl --set-default-version 1
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto start

Step 4 : Launch Kali Linux in Windows 10

To launch Kali Linux in Windows system, simply search it in windows search bar and launch it.

Launch-kali-linux-install Kali Linux on Windows 10 WSL

That’s all

If you face any error and issue in above steps , please use comment box below to report.

If our tutorials helped you, please consider buying us a coffee. We appreciate your support!

Thank you for your support.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top