# Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.9.8

- Product: Windows Subsystem for Linux (https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wsl)
- Vendor: Microsoft
- Date: 2026-08-24
- Version: 2.9.8
- Original notes: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.9.8
- Permalink: https://whatsnew.fyi/product/wsl/releases/2.9.8
- Labels: Pre-release

What's New is an index, not a publisher: every entry below links to the vendor's own release notes, which are the authoritative source. Entries are labelled where they are hand-curated sample data, pre-releases, or drawn from a secondary source such as a developer blog.

Reuse: the summaries, labels and curation here are © What's New. Quote freely with attribution and a link back; wholesale republication of the corpus is not permitted — terms: https://whatsnew.fyi/terms. The vendors' own release notes remain their publishers'.

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- **added** — Add WSLc API docs
- **added** — Implement --stop-timeout in wslc create|run and support -1 (infinite) timeouts
- **added** — Support arbitrary network driver options in wslc network create
- **added** — Add support for callback when loading images and display loaded images in wslc image load
- **added** — Add configurable storage path for the default wslc session
- **added** — Add samples to the API
- **added** — Add wslc network connect and disconnect commands
- **added** — Add support for container healthchecks
- **added** — Add wslc container cp command for tar archive upload
- **added** — Add --format option to wslc version command
- **changed** — Use strict detection of http line ending for docker response
- **changed** — Don't append the build prefix when a line is being continued from a previous log entry
- **changed** — CLI: Help improvements - Table output with color and routing support
- **changed** — Protect critical WSL processes under heavy load with cgroup and isolate distro cgroups
- **changed** — Read /etc/locale.conf when configuring the distro locale
- **fixed** — Fix socket channel set exit events
- **fixed** — CLI: Fix hang with exec/run -i with self-exiting command and open stdin
- **fixed** — Fix use lowercased key when validating windowsterminal.profileTemplate
- **fixed** — Fix various issues in the virtionet tests
- **fixed** — Don't use an overlay for the gpu libraries if the inbox folder isn't present
- **fixed** — Fix lost sub directory structure when mapping to a VHD volume
- **fixed** — Fix https proxy not set when pac is used
- **fixed** — Fix E_ACCESSDENIED during download if temp is hidden
- **fixed** — Fix potential use-after-free on the container deletion path
- **fixed** — Fix flaky E2E network list test assertion
- **fixed** — Handle partial write in stdio forwarding
- **fixed** — Mark routes via a link-local gateway as onlink to fix VPN /32 networking failures
- **removed** — Remove '.' from HCS suffix

##### What's Changed
* Run the distro validation script daily by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40920
* Added WSLc API docs  by @craigloewen-msft in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40922
* Add a script to validate & fix mismatches CRLF in the repo by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40933
* Remove '.' from HCS suffix by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40946
* fix socket channel set exit events by @chemwolf6922 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40924
* Use strict detection of http line ending for docker response by @yao-msft in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40932
* CLI: Fix hang with exec/run -i with self-exiting command and open stdin by @dkbennett in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40921
* Don't append the build prefix when a line is being continued from a previous log entry by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40947
* Implement --stop-timeout in wslc create|run and support -1 (infinite) timeouts by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40919
* fix: use lowercased key when validating windowsterminal.profileTemplate by @Osamaali313 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40911
* Use throwing overloads in SetupTestDirectory by @beena352 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40964
* Publish the WSLC nuget package on github releases by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40962
* Support arbitrary network driver options in wslc network create by @beena352 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40859
* Fix various issues in the virtionet tests by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40963
* Don't use an overlay for the gpu libraries if the inbox folder isn't present by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40969
* Fix Lost sub directory structure when mapping to a VHD volume by @kvega005 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40857
* Add support for callback when loading images and display loaded images in wslc image load by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40960
* Bump Kali to 2026.2 by @g0tmi1k in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40982
* Fix https proxy not set when pac is used by @chemwolf6922 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40950
* Fix E_ACCESSDENIED during download if temp is hidden by @chemwolf6922 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40708
* Add configurable storage path for the default wslc session by @benhillis in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40956
* Added samples to the API by @craigloewen-msft in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40930
* Document what the session creation parameters do, and which of them ae visible to all users on the machine by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41020
* fix(l10n): add localization guidance comments for commonly mistranslated terms by @yeelam-gordon in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/14440
* Cap storage hw queue count to 4 by @chemwolf6922 in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40975
* test(drvfs): add O_APPEND ftruncate coverage, skip on virtiofs by @benhillis in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41032
* Update validate-line-endings.py to not depend on pip packages by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41022
* Fix potential use-after-free on the container deletion path by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41018
* Remove comment in packages.config causing powershell parsing error by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41036
* Collect WSLg logs and crash dumps in collect-wsl-logs.ps1 by @benhillis in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/40913
* Log an error when connect() fails in the NAT mode relay by @OneBlue in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41033
* Mark routes via a link-local gateway as onlink to fix VPN /32 networking failures by @benhillis in https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/pull/41003
* Add wslc network connect and disconnect commands by @beena352 in https://github.com/

_[Truncated at 4000 characters — full notes: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/releases/tag/2.9.8]_