WSL 2 is getting faster Windows file system access

5 hours ago

WSL 2 has improved cross-OS file system access through generations: WSL 1 used DrvFs, WSL 2 switched to Plan 9 over Hyper-V socket, and now virtiofs reduces overhead with shared-memory transport.
A May 2026 update (PR #40654) introduces per-device dedicated DMA pools, eliminating contention between virtio devices (e.g., file mounts and network adapter) for better I/O performance.
Key scenarios benefiting include file-heavy cross-OS workflows like building projects stored on Windows drives from Linux, such as running cargo, npm, or mvn commands from /mnt/c.
To enable optimizations, users must set virtiofs=true in .wslconfig, update to kernel Microsoft.WSL.Kernel 6.18.26.3-1 via wsl.exe --update --pre-release, and ensure WSL 2 RAM exceeds 1 GB.
Virtiofs remains opt-in with Plan 9 as the default; ongoing open development continues at github.com/microsoft/WSL to narrow the performance gap between Windows and Linux file access.

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