How to Access Your Linux (WSL) Files in Windows 10

Key Takeaways

Launch your Linux terminal and run the command “explorer.exe .” to open File Explorer to that Linux distribution’s folder. Alternatively, enter “\wsl$” into File Explorer’s address bar to access your WSL folder, then open the desired distribution folder.

Windows 10’s May 2019 Update introduced an easy, safe, and officially supported way to access and work with your Linux files from within File Explorer and other applications. Here’s how to get at your Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) files.

Unlike previous methods, this is a safe way to work with Linux files! Windows does some magic in the background, making it possible to edit your Linux files from Windows applications without causing file permission issues. You still shouldn’t modify the underlying files at their real location on your system.

It doesn’t matter if you use WSL1 or WSL2. These commands all function exactly the same way.

Open WSL Files from Terminal

There are two ways to access your Linux files. First, the easy one. From within the Windows Subsystem for Linux environment you want to browse, run the following command:

This will launch File Explorer showing the current Linux directory — you can browse the Linux environment’s file system from there.

Open the WSL Directory in File Explorer Directly

You can also access them directly at a \wsl$ path. In File Explorer or any other Windows application that can browse files, navigate to the following path:

\wsl$

You’ll see the folders for all your installed Linux distributions, which are exposed as if they were network shares. For example, Ubuntu 22.04 usually is available at \wsl$Ubuntu-22.04.

Feel free to create a shortcut to this folder — for example, you could drag it to the Quick Access section in File Explorer’s sidebar.