Users can now install it using the WSL feature

Mar 6, 2018 20:00 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft announced on Tuesday that it brought the popular Debian GNU/Linux operating system to the Windows Store for those who want to install it on top of the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) feature for Windows 10.

The exciting announcement comes just one day after Microsoft introduced the Debian-based Kali Linux ethical hacking and penetration testing GNU/Linux distribution on the Windows Store for those who want to download and install it on their Windows 10 machines that support WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), and now you can do the same with Debian GNU/Linux.

"We’re excited to announce that you can now download & install Debian GNU/Linux via the Windows Store," said Tara Raj, Product Manager at Microsoft. "After we announced that you’d be able to install and run multiple distro’s side-by-side on WSL , we are happy to introduce another one of your favorite Linux distros to the Windows Store."

Here's how to download and install Debian GNU/Linux on Windows 10

As with Kali Linux, Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, and other supported GNU/Linux distros, you can now download and install Debian GNU/Linux on your Windows 10 machine directly from the Windows Store, but only if you enable the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) feature by running the "Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux" command in PowerShell as System Administrator.

With WSL enabled on your Windows 10 Fall Creators Update or a later version, head over to the Windows Store, search for Debian, and download and install it. Once Debian GNU/Linux was successfully installed, you can then fire up the operating system from the Start Menu of your Windows 10 machine. You'll be prompted to complete the installation by creating a LINUX username and assigning a password to it.

That's it! You'll now have Debian GNU/Linux installed on your Windows 10 computer and access more than 51,000 packages from the official software repositories of the open-source and free operating system. Those who want to use Debian GNU/Linux on their PCs can download the latest release through our web portal as live ISO images with a select desktop environment or installation-only images.