Jonathan Lalou's blog

Here is a fully automated PowerShell script that will:

1. Unregister and remove all WSL distros

2. Reset WSL to factory defaults

3. Optionally reinstall WSL cleanly (commented out)

⚠️ You must run this script as Administrator

# =====================================================
# WSL Full Reset Script for Windows 11
# Removes all distros and resets WSL system features
# MUST BE RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR
# =====================================================

Write-Host "`n== STEP 1: List and remove all WSL distros ==" -ForegroundColor Cyan

$distros = wsl --list --quiet
foreach ($distro in $distros) {
    Write-Host "Unregistering WSL distro: $distro" -ForegroundColor Yellow
    wsl --unregister "$distro"
}

Start-Sleep -Seconds 2

Write-Host "`n== STEP 2: Disable WSL-related Windows features ==" -ForegroundColor Cyan

dism.exe /online /disable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /norestart
dism.exe /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /norestart

Start-Sleep -Seconds 2

Write-Host "`n== STEP 3: Uninstall WSL kernel update (if present) ==" -ForegroundColor Cyan
$wslUpdate = Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Where-Object { $_.Name -like "*Microsoft.WSL2*" }
if ($wslUpdate) {
    winget uninstall --id "Microsoft.WSL2" --silent
} else {
    Write-Host "No standalone WSL kernel update found." -ForegroundColor DarkGray
}

Start-Sleep -Seconds 2

Write-Host "`n== STEP 4: Clean leftover configuration files ==" -ForegroundColor Cyan
$paths = @(
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.wslconfig",
    "$env:APPDATA\Microsoft\Windows\WSL",
    "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited*",
    "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Docker",
    "$env:USERPROFILE\.docker"
)
foreach ($path in $paths) {
    Write-Host "Removing: $path" -ForegroundColor DarkYellow
    Remove-Item -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue $path
}

Write-Host "`n== STEP 5: Reboot Required ==" -ForegroundColor Magenta
Write-Host "Please restart your computer to complete the WSL reset process."

# Optional: Reinstall WSL cleanly (after reboot)
# Uncomment the lines below if you want the script to also reinstall WSL
<# 
Write-Host "`n== STEP 6: Reinstall WSL ==" -ForegroundColor Cyan
wsl --install
#>