bostrot/wsl2-distro-manager v2.0.0

WSL Manager 2.0.0

on GitHub

WSL Manager 2.0 is the biggest release since the app was written: it runs on macOS now, it gained an AI layer (an isolated agent workspace, a chat that knows your setup, and an MCP server so your own tools can drive it), it can manage a remote Windows host's WSL over SSH, and every screen went through a full UI/UX audit.

Downloads

Pro unlocks the AI features: a one-time purchase in the Microsoft Store, or a licence key from wslmanager.com/buy for macOS and non-Store installs. No subscription, free updates.

Why a paid tier at all? WSL Manager has been a one-person, spare-time project since 2021. Managing your distros and VMs stays free and open source; Pro is the AI layer on top, and it is what turns the time spent on this app into planned, regular work on the next releases, free features included.

New in 2.0

macOS: native Linux VMs (beta)

• The app now runs on Apple silicon Macs and manages native Linux VMs through Apple's Virtualization framework, with the same list, start/stop, import/export, copy and snippet flows as WSL distros.
• Create VM page with a curated catalogue: Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine and eight more arm64 cloud images boot straight into a ready-to-use VM (qcow2 images are converted on the fly), plus an installer-ISO catalogue for everything else. A boot source is required, so no more unbootable VMs.
• Rows show the guest IP and real disk usage; Finder opens the VM's actual disk (and the app refuses to start a VM whose disk is still mounted).
• Show-screen button to summon a VM's display on demand, and an attachable serial console to drive a VM without a window.
• The app installs its SSH key into VMs that cloud-init never seeded, and explains a VM that stops right after starting.
• Native window controls, one title bar, and a wslmanager:// deep link that activates Pro straight from the browser after checkout.

AI Workspace, AI Chat and the MCP server (Pro, beta)

• AI Workspace: guided one-click setup of a dedicated Linux VM (or WSL distro) running Hermes Agent, OpenClaw and Open WebUI, with a full lifecycle (install, start, stop, uninstall, repair), streamed install progress, honest status probes and a task queue for agent jobs.
• AI Chat docked in the shell: bring your own API key (any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works), model autocomplete, live streamed replies with tool-call assembly, a code copy button, persistent sessions, failed messages kept with a retry, and long operations that can actually be stopped.
• AI Configuration Assistant and Error Diagnosis for WSL problems.
• Built-in MCP server with terminal sessions, so external agents can drive your distros and VMs; optional Cloudflare tunnel and a shareable web dashboard with QR code.
• One-click service recipes (storage, databases, brokers) for a distro or VM.

Remote WSL over SSH

• Drive a remote Windows host's WSL from the app — including from the Mac — with target validation, quoting that survives every Windows login shell, VHDX compaction on cleanup, and storage-path handling for remote distros.

Snippets and community scripts

• Snippets get a proper editor and sharing to the community repository through GitHub sign-in (the OAuth client id is bundled).
• Community scripts are a screen of their own with filters, and the Snippets tab is shared with the macOS backend.

Distros, packaging and configuration

• Distro packages replace templates: custom-distro packaging with wsl-distribution.conf, and a dedicated Ubuntu distro for the workspace.
• A rewritten .wslconfig engine with --manage surfaces, a rewritten wsl.conf editor, serialised config writes, and catalogue installs that work on every distro family.
• The distro catalogue is sourced from vendor infrastructure again, with a bundled fallback.
• Linux builds of the app.

Look, feel and accessibility

• A full UI/UX audit (214 findings closed): one dialog contract for buttons, titles and sizes; destructive actions that look and behave destructive; primary buttons that never silently do nothing; every icon-only control named; the whole app operable by keyboard; a status bar with severity and lifetime; error messages that say what failed and what to do; and no more discarded input on the way out of a form.
• Redesigned About dialog, a sparkle-pill AI chat button, a curated dark/light theme resolved entirely from the theme, and page navigation that replaces instead of stacking.
• Ten locales now ship, including the new Korean translation and es/hu/ja in the MSIX package, with a translation check in CI.

Fixes worth knowing about

• WinGet installs start correctly through winget's symlink (the app relaunches the real executable).
• Timed-out or force-killed child processes no longer leak wsl.exe; child processes are tied to a job object.
• WSL output is decoded as UTF-16LE, so non-ASCII output is readable.
• Tool commands run inside WSL instead of a non-existent bash on Windows.
• One failed list poll no longer wipes the distro list; deleting a template whose file is gone is tolerated.
• Open WebUI reports "starting" until it is actually healthy; gateway status is gated on the port, not the process.
• Dozens of bug reports from the issue tracker addressed; broken locales and unreadable copy repaired.

Full commit list: v1.11.0...v2.0.0

Contributors

• Korean translation by @moduvoice (#316), Chinese README by @Jesse205 (#306). Thank you!