X11 desktop GUI apps for Windows Subsystem for Linux

Related: Install Windows Subsystem for Linux

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Linux X11 GUI programs including geany, meld, and Spyder work great on Windows Subsystem for Linux. Install a Windows X11 server to enable graphical Linux applications on Windows as follows:

1. install Xming X11 server

2. add to WSL ~/.bashrc

   DISPLAY=:0.0
   export DISPLAY
   

3. To run any X11 Linux GUI app in WSL, start Xming first from Windows. You don’t have to do this before starting WSL.

NOTE do NOT open a port in your firewall for X11 if asked by Windows.