With the latest cumulative update, OS Build 20348.740, Microsoft officially announced the support for WSL2 is being added in a GitHub comment. To be able to test the new feature, users should install the Windows Server 2022 KB5014021 update first. Since it is an optional update, Windows will not automatically update.

Windows Server 2022 KB5014021 update

Windows Developer Platform Program Manager Craig Loewen announced the new feature on GitHub in a reply to a WSL issue from two years ago. Loewen said,

« Hi folks, we’ve added support for WSL 2 distros on Windows Server 2022! This is available right now by installing KB5014021. Currently this update is only available for seekers, and next month it will be pushed by default.

Going forwards, WSL will be supported both on Windows server and Windows desktop SKUs. Thank you all for the feedback, we appreciate your energy and passion for WSL! »

Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 was initially announced in the May of 2019 and shipped with Windows 10 with version 2004, released in 2020. WSL 2 was a major upgrade over WSL, which was released in 2018. WSL 2 offered various bug fixes and performance upgrades, such as support for using GUI-based Linux apps.