Windows doesn't automatically handle this update. We recommend updating your Linux distribution regularly, including immediately after you install, to ensure you have the most recent packages. Once you have installed WSL and a Linux distribution, open the Linux distribution (it can be found in your Windows start menu) and check the version and codename using the command: lsb_release -dc. These steps will include choosing a Linux distribution (for example, Ubuntu).

To enable and install WSL 2, see the WSL install documentation. We generally recommend using WSL 2 for Python web development work. WSL lets you run a GNU/Linux command line environment integrated directly with Windows and your favorite tools, like Visual Studio Code, Outlook, etc. We only recommend this if you are a more advanced Python programmer with a specific reason for choosing an alternative implementation. For some advanced scenarios, you may want to consider downloading a specific Python release directly from or consider installing an alternative, such as Anaconda, Jython, PyPy, WinPython, IronPython, etc. If you're interested in automating common tasks on your operating system, see our guide: Get started using Python on Windows for scripting and automation. If you're new to Python, see our guide: Get started using Python on Windows for beginners. Install and use Python directly on Windows for these cases. WSL does not support GUI desktops or applications (like PyGame, Gnome, KDE, etc). If you are using Python for something other than web development, we recommend you install Python directly on Windows using the Microsoft Store.

Most web apps are also deployed on Linux, so this will ensure you have consistency between your development and production environments. Many of the tutorials and instructions for Python web development are written for Linux users and use Linux-based packaging and installation tools. We recommend installing Python on WSL when building web applications. The following is a step-by-step guide to get you started using Python for web development on Windows, using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Update python debian