microsoft / microsoft/WSL

Allow to use other drives for distro installation

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#5,739 5 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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feature
Dominant language
C++
Stars
33.7k
Forks
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Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
116

Description

Describe the solution you'd like
Currently, when we install from Microsoft store, we use C:\ by default, however, we have the ability to select whatever drive we can use if we install manually (sacrificing having to do first time user setup however). I think we should have the distro launchers support selecting a host drive instead of relying on just C:, this is useful for multi-drive laptops where the SSD is only used as a system drive, and are expected to use the hard drive.

Describe alternatives you've considered
wsl --import or wsl --install works fine but it lacks the first-time user install experience.

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Research direction

The issue names Microsoft Store installation, distro launchers, wsl --import, and wsl --install; start by comparing these installation paths and how they choose the host drive. Done means a launcher can offer a non-C: drive while preserving the first-time user setup experience.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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