When you unregister a distro on Windows 10, it will no longer be available in the WSL environment, and all the changes made will be discarded. The next time you launch the distro from the Start menu or Microsoft Store, it will start as if it was the first time, and you will need to go through the process to set it up again. Microsoft defines the unregistering process as a way to uninstall the WSL2 distro, but without deleting the virtual machine from the device like the rest feature available in the Settings app. In this guide, you will learn the steps to unregister and reinstall a distribution of Linux on the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 platform.

Unregister Linux distro on WSL2

To unregister a Linux distribution on WLS2, use these steps: Once you complete the steps, the distro will reset and no longer be available in WSL, but it won’t be uninstalled from the computer. If you want to reinstall the distro, click the Launch button from the Microsoft Store or select it from the Start menu to start over with the setup. In the command, replace DISTRO-NAME for the name of the distro you want to set as default (see step No. 3). For example, this command unregisters Kali Linux: WSL2 unregister command All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.