WSL Dashboard
A modern, high-performance, and lightweight WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) instance management dashboard. Built with Rust and Slint for a premium native experience.
I18N: 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | English | 日本語 | Français | Español | Русский | Português | [Deutsch](https://git…
WSL Dashboard
A modern, high-performance, and lightweight WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) instance management dashboard. Built with Rust and Slint for a premium native experience.
I18N: 简体中文 | 繁體中文 | English | 日本語 | Français | Español | Русский | Português | Deutsch | Italiano | Türkçe | Bahasa Indonesia | हिन्दी | বাংলা
🖼️ Screenshots
Home (Light & Dark Mode)
Add Instance & Settings
About & Collapse menu
🎬 Operation Demo
Below is a demonstration of the WSL Dashboard in action:
🚀 Key Features
- Intuitive GUI with dark mode support and smooth animations.
- One-click management for all your WSL distributions (Start, Stop, Terminate, Unregister).
- Quick access to distribution terminals, VS Code, and File Explorer.
- Real-time WSL instance status monitoring and display.
- Export and backup to
.taror compressed.tar.gzarchives. - Import and clone instances from backups or existing distributions.
- Relocate large WSL instances (VHDX migration) to other disks to save C: drive space.
- Smart distribution installation from Microsoft Store or GitHub.
- Built-in RootFS download helper for manual installs.
- Detailed insights into VHDX file location, virtual disk size, and actual disk usage.
System Requirements
- Windows 10 or Windows 11 with WSL enabled (WSL 2 recommended).
- At least one WSL distribution installed, or permission to install new ones.
- 64-bit CPU; 4 GB RAM or more recommended for smooth multi-distro usage.
📦 Installation
Option 1: Download prebuilt binary
The easiest way to get started is to use the precompiled release:
- Go to the GitHub Releases page.
- Download the latest
wsldashboardexecutable for Windows. - Extract (if packaged) and run
wsldashboard.exe.
No installer is required; the app is a single portable binary.
Option 2: Build from source
Ensure you have the Rust toolchain (Rust 1.92+ or newer) installed.
Clone the repository:
git clone https://github.com/owu/wsl-dashboard.git
cd wsl-dashboard
Build and run:
For development:
cargo run
Optimized release build:
cargo run --release
Using the build script (recommended for producing release binaries):
The build script requires the
x86_64-pc-windows-gnutoolchain.
.\build\scripts\build.ps1
🧭 Usage Overview
- Manage existing distributions: start, stop, terminate, or unregister any WSL distro from the main view.
- Open tools quickly: launch a distro in your terminal, VS Code, or File Explorer with a single click.
- Create new instances: use the Add Instance view to install from the Microsoft Store, download RootFS images, or clone existing distributions.
- Backup and restore: export distributions to
.tar/.tar.gzarchives and import them later or on another machine. - Move storage location: relocate large VHDX files to a different drive to save C: drive space.
- Monitor status: keep an eye on real-time distribution status and storage usage while WSL Dashboard runs.
⚙️ Configuration & Logs
All configuration is managed through the Settings view:
- Choose the default installation directory for new WSL instances.
- Configure the log directory and log level (Error / Warn / Info / Debug / Trace).
- Pick the UI language or let it follow the system language.
- Toggle dark mode and whether the app can auto-shutdown WSL after operations.
- Configure how often the app checks for updates (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly).
Log files are written to the configured log directory and can be attached when reporting issues.
🛠️ Tech Stack & Performance
-
Core: implemented in Rust for memory safety and zero-cost abstractions.
-
UI framework: Slint, a modern GPU-accelerated UI toolkit (backend:
winit). -
Async runtime: Tokio for highly concurrent, non-blocking system commands and I/O.
-
Performance:
-
Memory usage: typically around 60–80 MB of RAM.
-
Responsiveness: near-instant startup and real-time WSL status updates using streaming.
-
Binary size: optimized release build produces a single compact executable.
🌍 Language Support
Full internationalization support is provided for the following languages:
| Language | Code | Emoji |
|---|---|---|
| English | en | 🇺🇸 |
| Simplified Chinese | zh-CN | 🇨🇳 |
| Traditional Chinese | zh-TW | 🇭🇰 / 🇹🇼 |
| Japanese | ja | 🇯🇵 |
| French | fr | 🇫🇷 |
| Spanish | es | 🇪🇸 |
| Russian | ru | 🇷🇺 |
| Portuguese | pt | 🇵🇹 |
| German | de | 🇩🇪 |
| Italian | it | 🇮🇹 |
| Turkish | tr | 🇹🇷 |
| Indonesian | id | 🇮🇩 |
| Hindi | hi | 🇮🇳 |
| Bengali | bn | 🇧🇩 |
📄 License
This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 – see the LICENSE file for details.
Built with ❤️ for the WSL Community.