How to access your Linux WSL files on Windows …

With respect to the LInux WSL files, the Windows 10 update May 2019 finally offers an easy way. In addition to secure and officially supported access and work with your Linux files. This will allow you to see everything you have in your favorite distribution from the Microsoft operating system.

All this is done from File Explorer and other applications. So you won't have the need to do a lot of things to access your Linux WSL files. Therefore, here we show you how to access your Windows Subsystem for Linux files.

The best way to access your Linux WSL files

Unlike the previous methods, this is a safe way to work with Linux files. Windows does some magic in the background, allowing you to edit your Linux files from Windows applications without causing file permission issues. You should not modify the underlying files in their actual location on your system yet.

There are two ways to access your Linux files. First, we will try the easy method. From the Windows subsystem environment for Linux that you want to explore, run the following command:

explorer.exe .

This will open the File Explorer that shows the current Linux directory; From there you can explore the environment file system you have installed. Recall that this works for most of the most popular distros of free software.

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

\wsl$

Now you will see the folders for all your installed Linux distributions, which are exposed as if they were network shares. For example, Ubuntu 18.04 is usually available in \ wsl $ Ubuntu-18.04.

You should feel free to create a shortcut to this folder; for example, you can drag that access to the "Quick access" section in the File Explorer sidebar and from there you can access your Linux files.

You can modify Linux files when you see fit

Again, you can modify these files normally as if they were any other type of file on your system. You can also modify files with Windows tools without any problem.

Notepad even supports Unix line terminations, create new files in Linux folders, delete files or do anything else you want. Windows will ensure that nothing goes wrong and the file permissions are updated correctly.

In this way, the latest Windows 10 update gives you permissions to review, edit, move and delete information that is no longer important to you.

This is how your Linux WSL files can be viewed and edited from the Windows 10 operating system. So you can now use these two systems so that you can edit important information. So, you just have to start seeing these files in the operating system you are using.