Overview

WSL Dashboard is a modern, high-performance management tool built specifically for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Why WSL Dashboard?

While Microsoft provides the wsl.exe command-line tool, users who frequently manage multiple distributions, configure networking, or mount USB devices will find that a GUI interface offers a far more intuitive experience with a much lower barrier to entry.

Tech Stack

• Core Language: Rust — ensuring extreme performance and memory safety.
• UI Framework: Slint — a modern declarative UI framework.
• Rendering Engine: Skia — provides smooth graphics rendering and excellent cross-platform display.
• Async Runtime: Tokio — handles non-blocking system calls and asynchronous tasks.

Performance

• Ultra-low memory footprint:
  • Silent launch (system tray): only ~10MB RAM.
  • Windowed mode (standard fonts): ~18MB RAM.
  • Windowed mode (complex fonts, e.g., CJK): ~38MB RAM.
• Native speed: No heavyweight runtime like Electron — starts instantly and responds immediately.

CLI Usage

WSL Dashboard can be launched from the Windows terminal with command-line arguments. Supported options:

wsldashboard.exe [OPTIONS]

Options:
  /initialize     Initialize Task Scheduler tasks and helper scripts (Requires UAC)
  /clean [/all]   Clean up system-level configurations (Uninstall mode)
                  Append /all to also delete the ~/.wsldashboard directory
  /silent         Start the application minimized to the system tray
  /scheduler      Auto-start distros, USB auto-connect, port forwarding (Internal use)
  /version, -v    Show version information
  /help, -h       Show this help message