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Accepted
Anthony Kong
Asked: 2018-02-05 15:10:29 +0800 CST

Feature name Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux is unknown

  • 772

I am trying to enable linux subsystem on a Windows Server 2016 on AWS EC2 by following these instructions https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-on-server

Here is the error message:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature : Feature name Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux is unknown.
At line:1 char:1
+ Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows- ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature], COMException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Microsoft.Dism.Commands.EnableWindowsOptionalFeatureCommand

enter image description here

My windows server is created based on an AWS ami.

How can I find out if my window server supports the linux subsystem? Is there anything I can do to enable the feature?

Update:

> systeminfo | Select-String "^OS Name","^OS Version"
OS Name:                   Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Datacenter
OS Version:                10.0.14393 N/A Build 14393
windows-server-2016

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Windows Server 2016 can't be upgraded to Windows Server 1709. You'll need a different AMI. Unfortunately AWS doesn't offer this currently.

    See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/get-started-with-1709

    Henning

    • 5

  2. Linux Subsystem added in version 1709 of Windows Server 2016. To verify the version of Windows you can run systeminfo | Select-String "^OS Name","^OS Version". After updating Windows to the proper version installation should work.

    • 2