owu/wsl-dashboard
A GUI manager for WSL featuring a modern UI — a lightweight, low‑memory, high‑performance dashboard to manage WSL instances.
📋 Changes
- Fixed issue where active port forwarding rules were not shown as active in UI on non-English systems, now compatible with all language versions of Windows
- Fixed potential issue where successful distro import/install might show error messages on non-English systems, now using exit code for result determination
- Added process detection to installer and uninstaller, automatically terminates running application before proceeding with installation/uninstallation
- Added WinGet publishing support (pending review), users can install via `winget install Owu.WSLDashboard`
📋 Changes
- Mirror Install: New Linux Mirrors install method with automatic mirror speed probing (throughput detection + TCP latency fallback), hash verification, and auto-retry;
- System Messaging: New system messaging framework for delivering critical notifications such as version compatibility risks and key announcements;
- Pin on Top: Title bar pin button for one-click always-on-top toggle; setting to hide the pin button;
- Donate Page: Sidebar donate entry and dedicated donate view; sidebar visibility controlled via settings;
- Multilingual Expansion: 21 new languages added, reaching 50 total; language selector upgraded from dropdown to a dedicated dialog (including README manuals)
- Install Guide: Home page shows setup guide link when no distro is detected; clicking opens the official documentation;
- WSL Version Compatibility Check: Automatic WSL version compatibility detection on startup; shows a warning dialog and directs users to documentation when incompatible
- Move Distro Improvement: Move operation uses elevated execution to avoid E_ACCESSDENIED on WSL 2.7.*.0; post-move registry verification to confirm success;
- + 10 more
📋 Changes
- VHDX Compression: Compress VHDX virtual disk files to reclaim physical disk space, with two strategies available — quick optimization and full rebuild. Automatically cleans system caches before compression, with visual progress indication throughout the process.
- Sparse VHD Mode: Set VHDX to sparse mode for on-demand disk allocation, so actual disk usage is far smaller than the nominal size. Automatically enabled for new installations based on configuration and preserved when cloning distributions.
- Colorful Icons: Each function icon now has its own semantic color, making operations like start, stop, terminal, editor, and file manager instantly recognizable. Can be toggled back to a single-color style with one click.
- Settings Page Redesign: The settings page has been split into three independent tabs — General, Advanced, and Interface — with clear categorization and separate saving. A quick "Stop WSL" action has also been added.
- Terminal Experience Upgrade: Windows Terminal is now preferred, falling back to the classic command line only when unavailable.
- Installer: A standardized Windows installation wizard is now available, supporting all languages, with one-click creation of desktop shortcuts, Start Menu entries, and scheduled tasks.
- About Page Redesign: Redesigned with a scrollable layout, consolidating quick links to the official website, announcements, discussions, and documentation. Copyright and open-source license information has been added.
- Update Experience Improvements: Update and expiration notifications now include the release date and a direct download link, eliminating the need to manually visit GitHub.
- + 6 more
**Change Summary**: 1. Fixed an issue where distro auto-startup failed in certain scenarios. 2. Implemented robust error handling logic for the distro auto-startup script hook input field. 3. Standardized the default terminal to cmd.exe. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.7.0...v0.7.1
**Change Summary**: 1. Added a checkbox to the distro settings dialog to toggle the use of an HTTP proxy. 2. Added a "Use System Color Mode" checkbox to the Settings interface. 3. Optimized the "About" interface (including the addition of buttons to join the official community group and check for updates). 4. Added a content template for creating GitHub Issues. 5. Implemented mutual exclusion checks and prompts for intensive operations (such as exporting, moving, cloning, deleting, or installing) to prevent risky actions (e.g., preventing certain functions from triggering a distribution startup while an export is in progress). 6. Fixed issues occurring when minimizing to the taskbar: the inability to activate the main window via the system tray, and the failure of the main window to display when launching the software a second time. 7. Fixed stuttering issues occurring in certain scenarios (e.g., when the terminal is open) upon exiting the software. 8. Optimized input fields and added input validation/restrictions for forms such as Port Forwarding. 9. Improved the wording of installation prompts for "usbipd-win." **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.6.0...v0.7.0
**Change Summary**: 1. Added network management features (port forwarding, port firewall opening), supporting automatic activation of configured port forwarding on Windows startup (implemented via Windows Task Scheduler). 2. Added HTTP proxy configuration, enabling automatic use of HTTP proxy when launching the terminal. 3. The startup of the distros has been adjusted to be triggered using Windows Task Scheduler. 4. Added `/scheduler` cold-start mode to support automated tasks, such as the automatic startup of distros, activation of port forwarding, and automatic connection of USB devices upon boot. 5. Added sidebar feature configuration to the settings page(Saving the OCD-afflicted). 6. Added a help link for script hooks in the distro settings. 7. Added an optional compression toggle for exporting distros. 8. Added IP address display in the distro information view. 9. For Microsoft Store-installed distros, the installation will be terminated and a conflict message will be shown when the same distro source is detected (cloning the installed distro is recommended). 10. Fixed a bug related to the target directory during distro cloning. 11. Fixed a bug when automatically connecting multiple USB devices. 12. Replaced the administrator mode shield icon and updated the *.md readme files. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.5.1...v0.6.0
**Change Summary**: 1. Optimized the launch method for opening distro in VS Code. 2. Fixed the ui is unresponsive when installing distro from the Microsoft Store. 3. Improved the handling of distro icons when moving or cloning distro. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.5.0...v0.5.1
**Change Summary**: 1. A global WSL2 settings (~/.wslconfig) has been added to the settings interface. 2. Distro configuration: /etc/wsl.conf . 3. Optimize the refresh strategy for the installed distro list (it will only refresh periodically if the homepage is selected in the sidebar and not closed to the system tray). 4. USB device management (based on [usbipd-win](https://github.com/dorssel/usbipd-win), it provides USB devices inserted into Windows systems for use by Linux systems in WSL; the refresh strategy is the same as the distro list). 5. Optimize the drop-down menu interaction in the settings interface. 6. Optimize the startup process and remove redundant logic. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.4.0...v0.5.0
**Change Summary**: 1. Supports internationalization, adding 15 languages (including languages written from right to left, such as Arabic, Urdu, and Hebrew). 2. Update the readme files for all 29 languages. 3. Optimized the risk of UI blocking in scenarios involving intensive use of WSL commands (e.g., installing instances, moving WSL1 distributions, cloning, moving WSL2 distributions). 4. Fixed a minor memory leak caused by repeatedly switching the main menu on the left. 5. Fixed a memory leak caused by repeatedly saving in other languages. 6. Western language (English, etc) operating systems enable support for displaying large fonts (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). 7. Remember the collapsed state of the hamburger menu in the sidebar. 8. Optimize the distribution cloning process(WSL2 completes in seconds). 9. Move/clone; detects C drive space; if C drive is insufficient, automatically uses other drives. 10. Fixed potential interface lag when deleting or cloning more than 10 distributions consecutively. 11. The default distro is displayed at the top. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.3.0...v0.4.0
📋 Changes
- Compatibility of Chinese and Japanese character display on Western language operating systems.
- Font rendering optimization: Differentiate between large fonts (Chinese, Japanese) and medium/small fonts (Western languages), and load them on demand;
**Change Summary**: 1. Because the UPX version of the file caused decision fatigue for users, and to avoid having to explain what UPX is, the GitHub Actions workflows code (please see "Full Changelog") has been modified to disable the release of UPX files. 2. This new version has no functional changes compared to the previous version, so no version update notification will be sent. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.2.2...v0.2.3
**Change Summary**: 1. The user interface is rendered using renderer-skia(This significantly increased the size of the executable file). 2. Optimized prompt messages for export, move, and clone operations. 3. The timestamps in the log files are output according to the user's time zone. 4. Use UPX to compress executable files(To compensate for the increase in volume caused by adjustments to the rendering scheme). 5. The compilation toolchain is standardized to stable-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc. 6. Optimizing for competitive issues in consecutive delete operations across multiple distribution instances. 7. Optimize migration functionality. 8. The new rendering scheme significantly reduces the software's memory usage (35MB for the executable version, 50MB for the UPX-compressed version). **Special Note**: What is wsldashboard.v\*.\*.\*.upx.exe ? 1. The compiled `wsldashboard.v*.*.*.exe` (14MB) file is compressed using [UPX](https://github.com/upx/upx) to generate a smaller executable file wsldashboard.v\*.\*.\*.upx.exe (5MB); 2. The executable files on the release page are automatically built by GitHub Actions workflows ( [.github/workflows/release.yml](https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/blob/main/.github/workflows/release.yml) ), so the files are trustworthy ; 3. Because the executable file uses compression technology, **it may be falsely detected as a threat by some antivirus software** ; 4. Both files have identical functionality and can be downloaded as needed ; If you are a regular user (not a developer or a tech enthusiast), it is strongly recommended that you download the **wsldashboard.v\*.\*.\*.exe** version of the file. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.2.0...v0.2.2
**Change Summary**: 1. Move the distribution to the specified directory. 2. If the distribution does not support VS Code functionality, an installation prompt will be displayed. 3. Exporting , moving and cloning Linux distributions: adding a global mutex lock. 4. Distribution settings: Set as default distribution; automatic startup on boot (startup script hook); terminal directory; VS Code directory. 5. The log download during the distribution installation shows optimizations. 6. When removing a distribution, use Remove-AppxPackage <PackageFullName> to clean up the Appx package. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.1.1...v0.2.0 **Software introduction video**: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bj7vR5dEuU
**Change Summary**: 1. Default subsystems now display different background colors. 2. Software icons are adapted for Windows 10 (including "Segoe Fluent Icons font"). 3. Automated building and release of new versions using GitHub Actions. **Full Changelog**: https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard/compare/v0.1.0...v0.1.1
**Main Features**: 1. Distribution list (running status, started, stopped, terminal, VS Code, browse files, information, export, clone, delete) 2. Install distributions from local Roofts, VHDX, and the Microsoft Store 3. Internationalization Support (Multi-language), New Version Detection, etc.
