WSL Manager

About

WSL Manager is a front end for Linux distros on Windows and macOS. Beyond starting and stopping instances, it lets you move, copy, rename and back up an instance to another drive, and compact its virtual disk to reclaim space WSL does not return on its own. You can also pull any Docker image from Docker Hub and turn it into a WSL instance without installing Docker, and manage WSL on a second Windows machine over SSH.

The app includes templates for repeating a configured setup, snippets to run saved commands against any instance, and a GUI for settings that would otherwise require editing .wslconfig, such as systemd, automount, memory, processors, swap and networking. It can also attach physical disks or VHDs, and open Windows Terminal, VS Code or Explorer inside a distro. A built-in MCP server exposes your distros to Claude Desktop and other MCP clients so an agent can list instances, run commands and hold terminal sessions.

On macOS, the app uses the same interface, snippets, templates, AI assistant and MCP server, but manages native Linux (and, on Apple Silicon, macOS) virtual machines instead of WSL distros. Windows requires version 1903 or later with WSL 2, and macOS requires an Apple Silicon or Intel Mac.