Run desktop applications under WSL and display them with VcXsrv

wsl-vcxsrv-quickstart.md

First setup:

• Install VcXsrv (https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/)

• Launch it (shows up in windows search as "XLaunch"), it will prompt you for some configuration

  • "Select display settings" sets how you want your WSL applications to be presented on the desktop, set these options however you like
  • "Select how to start clients" can be left at "Start no client"
  • On the "Extra settings" screen, tick "Disable access control" (or, if you don't trust your local network, have fun figuring out X authorities I guess)
  • Save your configuration to a file - this will be handy later

• Once you click "Finish", head to WSL and check /etc/resolv.conf. Copy down the IP in the nameserver line - that's the IP you can use in WSL to target normal Windows

• In WSL bash, export DISPLAY="IP:0" where IP is the one you just found

• Try running a GUI application - for example, xeyes (sudo apt install xeyes if you don't have it)

To speed things up in the future:

• If you saved your XLaunch settings to a file, you can use them automatically by modifying the XLaunch application shortcut. Add the option -run "C:\Path\To\config.xlaunch" to the "Target" box in the shortcut's properties.

• You can automatically set $DISPLAY from your shell profile. For example, I use the following for bash/zsh:

  # If on WSL, define DISPLAY with the local system address from /etc/resolv.conf to enable GUI stuff
  if [ -n "$WSL_DISTRO_NAME" ]; then
      export DISPLAY="$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0"
  fi