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Updated on July 14, 2020 in #dev-environment, #linux

3 Gotchas with WSL 2 around Disk Space, Memory Usage and Performance

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In this video, we'll identify and go over how to fix 3 different WSL 2 issues that'll likely cause you trouble over time.

Quick Jump:

As of July 2020, it’s easy to get in a situation where WSL 2 will eat up all of your disk space, use 80% of your memory and get poor file I/O performance when accessing mounted drives.

We’ll go over how to address all of these issues below. Everything we’ll go over will work for all editions of Windows 10.

Update: I also recorded a 2nd video that focuses on reclaiming a ton of disk space from Docker Desktop’s WSL 2 VM. I recommend watching that video after this one.

# Going Over Everything

Timestamps

  • 0:30 – Combating poor file performance in WSL 2 when accessing mounted drives
  • 2:38 – Ensuring WSL 2 doesn’t use up to 80% of your system’s memory
  • 6:17 – Clearing out WSL 2’s memory usage on demand with a Bash alias
  • 8:21 – Reclaiming disk space that WSL 2’s VM won’t free up by default
  • 10:12 – Be careful because WSL 2 won’t auto-mount your external drives
  • 12:56 – How to shrink your WSL 2 VM to reclaim disk space in PowerShell
  • 18:10 – An alternative to the Optimize-VHD command on Windows 10 Home
  • 19:10 – Recap and hopefully Microsoft fixes these issues in future WSL 2 patches

Reference Links

Are you aware of any other gotchas with WSL 2? Let me know below.

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