The future of the Microsoft Store (msstore) version of WSL install

[byjrack]

Currently still at 2.5.9 it looks like even though the 2.6 branch has been out for a while. The last updated date in Store does list 9/12 which is well after 2.6.1 so it's possible its later. Some other tools seem to indicate it is 2.4.13 in the Store so not exactly sure which is accurate.

winget list 9p9tqf7mrm4r
Name                        Id           Version Source
---------------------------------------------------------
Windows Subsystem for Linux 9P9TQF7MRM4R 2.5.9.0 msstore
Windows Subsystem for Linux 9P9TQF7MRM4R 2.5.9.0 msstore

Reason it is valuable to me is I can use the Intune Store app integration to facilitate installs as well as upgrades automatically via Company Portal with the correct elevated context. Running wsl --install --no-distribution in SYSTEM historically has been a bit fragile, but would be happy to hear that maybe has changed. We also have had issues with our policies for the Store impacting things, but WSL doesn't go the traditional Store paths and that too may have improved.

My goal is to allow folks to install and update WSL when the UAC model for their context is not really possible. Then try and do it with as little operational overhead as possible both for the admins "packaging" but also users needing to keep up to date.

Now even if it was being maintained i believe microsoft/winget-cli#5491 would still cause some issues here, but trying to be optimistic that will be resolved.