Cannot execute MSI files stored on WSL filesystem

[printfn]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.3323]

WSL Version

2.4.10.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

Linux version 5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2 (root@f9c826d3017f) (gcc (GCC) 11.2.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils) 2.37) #1 SMP Tue Nov 5 00:21:55 UTC 2024

Distro Version

Ubuntu 24.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

1. Download an MSI (e.g. the Firefox installer MSI from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/desktop-release/win64-msi/en-US/) and store it in the WSL filesystem
2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to \\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu-24.04\path\to\msi and double-click the MSI

Expected Behavior

The MSI should open as expected

Actual Behavior

It fails with the error message "This package could not be opened. Contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer package"

Diagnostic Logs

No response

[github-actions]

Logs are required for review from WSL team

If this a feature request, please reply with '/feature'. If this is a question, reply with '/question'.
Otherwise please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.

How to collect WSL logs

Download and execute collect-wsl-logs.ps1 in an administrative powershell prompt:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/WSL/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1" -OutFile collect-wsl-logs.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

The script will output the path of the log file once done.

If this is a networking issue, please use collect-networking-logs.ps1, following the instructions here

Once completed please upload the output files to this Github issue.

Click here for more info on logging
If you choose to email these logs instead of attaching to the bug, please send them to wsl-gh-logs@microsoft.com with the number of the github issue in the subject, and in the message a link to your comment in the github issue and reply with '/emailed-logs'.

[printfn]

/emailed-logs

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

Found '/emailed-logs', adding tag 'emailed-logs'

[OneBlue]

Thank you for reporting this @printfn. Unfortunately this is a limitation from MSI which doesn't support running from a \wsl.localhost path.

Closing since this can't be fixed from the WSL side