Windows applications can no longer access WSL filesystem

[seppestas]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.4460]

WSL Version

2.3.26.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.167.4-1

Distro Version

22.04

Other Software

No response

Repro Steps

Launch a windows application with a path in the Linux filesystem. E.g.

• from the home directory in WSL, run dir.exe
• use IntelliJ IDEA on Windows to open a project in WSL (see https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-364386).
• Use Windows python to run a Python script in the WSL filesystem

Expected Behavior

The windows applications should be able to to access files and directories on the WSL filesystem. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/filesystems#file-storage-and-performance-across-file-systems.

Actual Behavior

All paths opened in Windows applications are relative to C:\Windows instead of the WSL working directory.

E.g.

• running dir.exe from any path on the WSL filesystem shows the directory content of C:\Windows
• The IntelliJ IDEA terminal tool always defaults to using /mnt/c/WINDOWS
• Windows Python fails to load scripts in the WSL filesystem:

seppe@PC:~/gps$ python.exe gps.py
python.exe: can't open file 'C:\\WINDOWS\\gps.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

Diagnostic Logs

WslLogs-2024-12-13_13-01-48.zip

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Otherwise please attach logs by following the instructions below, your issue will not be reviewed unless they are added. These logs will help us understand what is going on in your machine.

How to collect WSL logs

Download and execute collect-wsl-logs.ps1 in an administrative powershell prompt:

Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/WSL/master/diagnostics/collect-wsl-logs.ps1" -OutFile collect-wsl-logs.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force
.\collect-wsl-logs.ps1

The script will output the path of the log file once done.

If this is a networking issue, please use collect-networking-logs.ps1, following the instructions here

Once completed please upload the output files to this Github issue.

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View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• Working directory not preserved when running Windows executable from WSL directory (#12291), similarity score: 0.75
• Can't acces WSL files/mapped drive from certain windows programs (#10859), similarity score: 0.74

Closed similar issues:

• Access files in WSL filesystem by exe in Windows' filesystem (#7691), similarity score: 0.78
• WSL file system not available to any windows applications until after I start WSL Terminal (#8508), similarity score: 0.74
• Executables that access the WSL disks fail to open (#6656), similarity score: 0.74

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

[github-actions]

Diagnostic information

Issue was edited and new log file was found: https://github.com/user-attachments/files/18126638/WslLogs-2024-12-13_13-01-48.zip
Detected appx version: 2.3.26.0

[microsoft-github-policy-service]

This issue has been automatically closed since it has not had any author activity for the past 7 days. If you're still experiencing this issue please re-file it as a new issue.

Thank you!