Ubuntu Pro for WSL (UP4W)

Note

This documentation describes a future release of UP4W. UP4W is not yet generally available in the Microsoft Store.

Ubuntu Pro for WSL (UP4W) is a powerful automation tool for managing WSL on Windows. If you are responsible for a fleet of Windows devices, UP4W will enable you to monitor, customise and secure Ubuntu WSL instances at scale.

UP4W is designed to achieve close integration with applications for customising images, enforcing standards and validating security compliance. WSL instances can be created, removed and monitored with Landscape. Microsoft Defender is WSL-aware, making it easy to confirm if instances are compliant. Cloud-init support is built-in, allowing efficient customisation of standard images.

Once you have an Ubuntu Pro subscription, adding your Pro token to UP4W on a Windows host will add that token to all connected WSL instances with the Ubuntu Pro client installed. When the Landscape client is installed on the host, any connected WSL instances will be auto-enrolled in Landscape. WSL instances can then be remotely created, provisioned and managed from the Windows host.

WSL is preferred by many organisations as a solution to run a fully-functioning Linux environment on a Windows machine. UP4W empowers system administrators and corporate security teams to manage large numbers of WSL instances effectively.

Read our getting started tutorial to begin.

In this documentation

Start here with hands-on tutorials for new users, guiding you through your first-steps

Follow step-by-step instructions for key operations and common tasks

Read technical descriptions of important factual information relating to UP4W

Review guides and reference material aimed at contributors

Project and community

UP4W is a member of the Ubuntu family. It’s an open-source project that warmly welcomes community contributions, suggestions, fixes and constructive feedback. Check out our contribution page on GitHub in order to bring ideas, report bugs, participate in discussions and much more!

Thinking about using UP4W for your next project? Get in touch!