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After using the Microsoft Store app to update all apps (including WSL), WSL fails to run when run without admin privilege.

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PS C:\Users\mslin> wsl
Element not found.
Error code: Wsl/ERROR_NOT_FOUND

If I run PowerShell with administrator privileges then I can start it by typing wsl. Ubuntu is still intact. In the following I launched PowerShell with admin privilege, otherwise this command would also fail:

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PS C:\Windows\system32> wsl -l
Windows Subsystem for Linux Distributions:
Ubuntu (Default)

What should I do to fix this?

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  • This seems like a likely duplicate. Can you edit your question to include additional vital information to answer your question? This actually appears to be a better duplicate
    – Ramhound
    Nov 15 at 2:01
  • Edit your question to include your WSL logs. Without the logs we cannot help you
    – Ramhound
    Nov 15 at 2:07
  • @Ramhound the issue is not related Happend today for me after a scheduled winupdate To access and start wsl with UAC permissions works
    – Andreas Dirnberger
    Nov 15 at 7:58
  • I could uninstall and reinstall a distro with UAC and have no issues. But without UAC mode wsl.exe simply failes and of course docker-desktop too. procmon does not show any eye catching errors or differences between both executions.
    – Andreas Dirnberger
    Nov 15 at 10:58
  • 1
    @MikeSlinn - Still waiting on those logs. As there is no file upload mechanism for Stack Exchange. You could probably upload it Github
    – Ramhound
    Nov 20 at 17:25

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

There is some ongoing issue with WSL.

Currently seen two working workarounds:

  • run whatever you are using to start WSL as admin
  • remove recent update - details
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