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Windows Subsystem for Linux · earlier release

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.5.7

The URL Microsoft Corp. published for this release, and the SHA-256 of every file in it, so you can prove the copy you have is that one and not something else wearing the same name.

Released 24 April 2025.

This is not the current release

Windows Subsystem for Linux is now on version 2.7.12. An older build stops getting security fixes, so install one only when you have a reason: a plugin that broke, a machine that cannot run the new one, a bug you need to reproduce. If you just want Windows Subsystem for Linux, take the current version.

Files in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.5.7

Which one of these you want

This release shipped in more than one architecture, and the wrong one fails in a way that is not obvious: it either refuses to start or installs and then misbehaves. Take x64 unless the machine is genuinely 32-bit or ARM. Here is how to check which one your Windows is — and note that x86 means 32-bit, which is the part that catches people out.

Check the file you have

Windows does this without installing anything. In PowerShell:

Get-FileHash .\wsl.2.5.7.0.x64.msi -Algorithm SHA256

Compare what it prints with the value above. If they match, your copy is byte-for-byte the one Microsoft Corp. published. If they do not, it is a different file, whatever it is called and wherever it came from. Paste a hash into the verifier and it will tell you which release it belongs to.

If PowerShell is blocked by policy on the machine, the same thing works from plain cmd with certutil -hashfile wsl.2.5.7.0.x64.msi SHA256. On macOS or Linux it is shasum -a 256 wsl.2.5.7.0.x64.msi.

If the link no longer works

Publishers retire old releases, and we do not host copies, so a link from an earlier version can stop working without notice. Two ways it fails: an honest 404, or — more confusing — the server answers normally but hands you the current downloads page instead of the file. If what arrives is a few kilobytes of HTML rather than an installer, that is what happened.

The hash on this page stays useful either way. It still identifies Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.5.7 wherever you find a copy, which is the whole point of publishing it: you can accept a file from somewhere else and still prove it is the one Microsoft Corp. built.

Releases either side of this one

Every Windows Subsystem for Linux release we index · where this data comes from