"Azure Linux Desktop"

Azure Linux 4, WinUI 3, wslc, WinUI Reactor, .NET 10, and XRDP

This is a fun thing that brings together a handful of the projects highlighted at Microsoft Build 2026.

This app is a .NET 10-based WinUI 3 app built using Microsoft UI Reactor (no XAML). On launch it starts an embedded wslc container based on Azure Linux 4.0, and boots to a fun XFCE desktop.

The purpose is to show off:

• The wslc API
• Azure Linux 4.0
• Microsoft UI Reactor

This is a one-off toy. Do not expect ongoing maintenance of this project. The build steps require building unstable WSL from main to get wslc early (yay open source!). wslc will be available in a few weeks via wsl.exe --update --pre-release before it GA's into WSL officially.

Azure Linux 4.0 doesn't include desktop/GUI packages, but because it's based on a snapshot of Fedora Linux 43, shoving them in from Fedora repos sort of works (yay open source!). This is a bad hack. Do not do this in production.

This is also built with an early build from source of Microsoft UI Reactor. Again, this is a one-off. Expect breaking changes from upstream.

I was inspired in part by @craigloewen-msft's Herbert demo.

I have themed the XFCE 4 desktop with a recreation of the Bluecurve theme by @neeeeow, for nostalgia reasons. IYKYK.

The image also installs Visual Studio Code because a desktop needs an editor. And PowerShell.

Minimum Requirements

• Windows 10 22H2 (build 19045) or later, Windows 11 recommended
• .NET SDK 10
• Visual Studio 2022 or newer with the components from external\WSL\.vsconfig (Desktop C++, Clang/LLVM, Windows SDK 10.0.26100.0) and the .NET WinUI app development tools
• CMake 3.25+

The fastest way to get all the dependencies in place is to run the setup script:

.\scripts\Setup-BuildEnv.ps1

Some Cool Things

• Audio should work
• GPU acceleration should work
• Copy and paste should work
• The display supports dynamic resizing
• The container comes with VS Code and PowerShell pre-installed

Building

1. Clone with submodules

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/sirredbeard/azurelinux-desktop
cd azurelinux-desktop

2. Build and install WSL from source

There is no public preview of wslc yet. Build WSL from the external/WSL submodule and install it. This replaces the system WSL with a fresh build from main. You should probably not do this.

# Run as Administrator. The deploy step installs the MSI.
.\scripts\Build-Wsl.ps1

This takes a minute. It configures the WSL build tree with the C# SDK targets enabled, builds everything, installs wsl.msi, and copies the SDK artifacts to artifacts\wslc\.

Confirm it worked:

wsl --version
wslc version

3. Enable the wslc SDK in the app project

Set <EnableWslcSdk>true</EnableWslcSdk> in AzureLinuxDesktop.App\AzureLinuxDesktop.App.csproj.

Confirm these three files exist in artifacts\wslc\ before building:

• wslcsdk.dll
• wslcsdkcs.dll
• Microsoft.WSL.Containers.winmd

If you rebuild WSL later and only need to refresh the SDK artifacts, run scripts\Build-WslcSdk.ps1. It targets only the C# SDK and skips the full build.

4. Build the Azure Linux XRDP container image

.\scripts\Build-AzureLinuxRdpImage.ps1

The app runs this automatically on first launch if the image is missing. Building it ahead of time just makes the first launch fast.

Confirm the image is registered:

wslc images

You should see azurelinux-xfce-xrdp:4.0 in the output.

5. Build and run the app

dotnet build .\AzureLinuxDesktop.slnx
dotnet run --project .\AzureLinuxDesktop.App

6. Optional: publish a release build

dotnet publish .\AzureLinuxDesktop.App -c Release -r win-arm64   # or win-x64

License

Code original to this repository is MIT licensed. The container image pulls in PowerShell, Visual Studio Code, a community Bluecurve theme, and packages from Azure Linux and Fedora, each under its own license. See LICENSE.md for the full text and acknowledgements.

This is a personal demo project. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Microsoft, the Fedora Project, Red Hat, or any other project named here. Microsoft, Windows, Azure, Visual Studio Code, and PowerShell are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. Fedora is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. The Bluecurve look originated at Red Hat, and this project uses the open recreation by @neeeeow. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, logos, and copyrights belong to their respective owners, and I claim no ownership of any of them.