Microsoft is starting to give Windows 10 testers access to Linux GUI apps. The first preview of GUI application support is available today to Windows Insiders, allowing developers to run GUI editors, tools and applications to build and test Linux apps. It’s a major extension to Microsoft’s Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), after the company added a full Linux kernel to Windows 10 last year.
While it was possible to run Linux GUI apps within Windows using a remote X server, official support from Microsoft means there is GPU hardware acceleration too, so apps and tools run smoothly. Audio and microphone support is also included as standard, so Linux developers can easily test or run video players and communication apps.
All of this is possible without the need for Windows users to use X11 forwarding and without users having to manually start an X server. Microsoft automatically starts an associated system distro when you try to run a Linux GUI app, and it includes a Wayland, X server, pulse audio server, and everything else needed to make this work in Windows. Once you end an app and WSL, this special distro will also end. All these components combine to make it super easy to run Linux GUI apps alongside regular Windows apps.
Microsoft is also testing a new eco mode for Windows Task Manager in this latest test release. It is an experimental feature that allows you to limit process resources in Task Manager. It’s really designed to stop apps that suddenly take up a lot of system resources, and it can be useful if you want to slow down an app temporarily.
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If you are interested in testing Linux GUI apps on Windows 10 or this new Task Manager feature, you will need to install the latest Windows Insider build 21364 from the Dev Channel. Be warned: these are designed as developer builds and not for machines you rely on every day.