Open regedit as Administrator and navigate to:
To back up a distribution:
List your installed distributions:
wsl --unregister <DistributionName> Example:
wsl --list --verbose or simply:
wsl --unregister Ubuntu-22.04 Repeat for every distribution. Once unregistered, all files, settings, and the Linux filesystem for that distro are permanently deleted. Even after unregistering, some WSL processes may linger. Run:
For most users, stopping at (unregistering distros and disabling features) is sufficient. Steps 4–6 are for those who want a deep clean or are troubleshooting severe issues. Last updated: 2025 uninstall wsl
Uninstalling WSL is not a single click. It involves removing the Linux distributions, the WSL components themselves, and cleaning up leftover files and registry entries. This guide provides a complete, safe method to remove everything WSL-related. If you have any important files, scripts, or configuration data inside your Linux distribution(s), back them up now . Uninstalling will permanently delete all Linux files, home directories, and installed packages.