v2 Home
About this section. The pages prefixed
v2-document the next release of WSL Manager (thebetabranch, becoming 1.12) — including the new macOS build. The pages without a prefix describe the currently published 1.11 release. Things here marked BETA in the app are new and still settling.
WSL Manager is a free, open source desktop app for managing your Linux environments:
- on Windows it manages WSL2 distros — install, copy, rename, move, back up, package and delete them without memorising a single
wsl.exeflag; - on macOS (beta) the very same app manages native Linux and macOS virtual machines through Apple's Virtualization framework.
On top of that come saved command snippets, one-click service recipes, disk mounting, .wslconfig editing, remote WSL over SSH, and — with Pro — an AI assistant that can actually operate your instances, sandboxed AI chats, a task queue, an AI Workspace for local agents, and an MCP server for external AI clients.
📥 Installation — Microsoft Store, winget, Scoop, Chocolatey or a portable build on Windows; a .dmg on macOS.
💻 Features — what the app can do, page by page, with screenshots.
🍎 macOS — requirements, install, creating Linux and macOS VMs, and what differs from Windows.
🤖 AI Assistant — the built-in agent, providers (your own API key or your Claude subscription), sandboxes and the task queue.
🧪 AI Workspace — run Hermes Agent, OpenClaw and Open WebUI in a dedicated, isolated WSL distro or Linux VM.
🔌 MCP Server — let Claude Desktop, Claude Code, opencode and other MCP clients drive your WSL distros or VMs.
🌐 Remote WSL over SSH — manage WSL on another Windows machine from this app (works from a Mac, too).
💎 Free vs Pro — what's free, what's Pro, how the one-time purchase works on each platform, and why the AI features need your own credentials.
🔧 Troubleshooting — common problems and how to fix them.
🐛 Bugs and Issues — if something breaks, please report it. Beta-flagged features especially benefit from this.
📦 Distro Requests — ask for a distro to be added to the built-in download list.
🌍 Translations — the app ships in nine languages (English, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Japanese, Portuguese, Turkish, Simplified & Traditional Chinese). Contributions are very welcome: add a lib/i18n/<locale>.json containing every key from en.json, register the locale in lib/components/constants.dart, and run dart run scripts/check_translations.dart.
The app is and stays open source (GPL-3.0). If it's useful to you, a ⭐ on the repo or a sponsorship helps a lot.
You can also join our Discord community!