Installing Bash on Windows 10

The recent update for Windows 10 enabled a feature that I’m sure has gone unnoticed by many: You can now install a native linux terminal in Windows.

Who cares? I hear you ask.  Well, I’ll be writing up guides on some open source software soon, and using Bash on Windows 10 is waaaaay easier than asking you to install a whole Linux operating system, or deal with the oddities of Cygwin.

So, this post in and of itself probably won’t be much use to you, but I’ll be referring back to it in future posts.

Anyway:

Step 1:  enable developer mode.

Go to Settings -> Update and Security -> For developers and check the circle next to ‘Developer Mode’, thus:

Step 2: install the Linux subsystem:

Probably the least obvious step.  Head to ‘control panel’ (just type ‘control panel’ into your start menu/screen), and then go to Programs->Turn Windows Features on or off.

In the window that appears, select ‘Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta)’.

You’ll then probably want to reboot.  When that’s done, all you need to do is type ‘bash’ into your start menu/screen, and away you go: You now have a fully functioning native linux terminal in windows:

I know, I know, you can hardly contain your excitement!  Next stop: Power using open source photogrammetry software in windows!