How to Install Bash on Windows 10

Today’s guide will help you install Bash, which Miscrosoft recently enabled on its Windows 10 Preview Build 14316

Microsoft’s planned release of Bash for Windows 10 has been creating quite a buzz among professional programmers. Indeed, Bash will supposedly unlock a new level of flexibility for Windows. Brian Fox’s brain child has grown immensely over the years, but until yesterday only Linux users were able to enjoy it. No more. As of Insider Preview Build 14316 you can enable and use Bash on your Windows installation! Of course, since this is a Preview build not all the kinds have been ironed out yet. You’ll have to go through a variety of options and hoops in order to enable Bash on your machine, but its worth it! We’ve set up this guide to help you started.

Please note that while Build 14316 also contains a lot of new toys, it apparently also caused headaches to a lot of people – especially with its installation and download. BSoD also appear to be an issue, so we don’t recommend that you install this update just yet if you are looking for a safe workplace environment. But if you are like us and cannot resist playing with new toys, then by all means hop on!

Currently it is rumored that a finished workable version of Bash will be pushed into the speculated anniversary update. Microsoft has been silent on the matter, however, and only time will tell if this is to happen. The last thing they want is a buggy and unstable new feature that a lot of people are eager to try. Best not to repeat the Vista BSoD disaster.

And now…

How to enable Bash on Windows 10

  • Important! Bash can only be used with the latest Window preview build 14316 and only on the 64bit version of the OS. If you do not have it downloaded and installed already please get it done now. This guide is useless without this preview build.

First off you’ll need to enable Developer Mode in order to to be able to use this feature. If you have already done this feel free to skip this step.

Click on the Start Menu button (or press the Windows key) ->Settings. Navigate to the Update & Security tab. From there you need to enable Developer Mode by first selecting For Developers.

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Now to turn on the new feature…

Windows Key and R key. Type appwiz.cpl->OK. From the panel on the left select Turn Windows Features on or off. Navigate to the bottom and place the check-mark on Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta). 

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  • Important! If the “Windows Subsystem for Linux” check-box is not there then you either have not installed the 14316 build or you’re not using a 64-bit versions of Windows. Sorry!

Once you are done here reboot your system. After it has successfully rebooted, press together the Windows Key and X. From the menu select the Command Prompt (Admin)  and type powershell in it. Once you see the powershell prompt appearing type bash and hit Return.

You have to accept the license by typing y, then enter to register it. Powershell will now start downloading bash from the Windows Store. This may take a while depending on your internet connection. Once that’s done you’ll be directly taken to the bash prompt as (root)

In the future you can also access Bash by hitting the Start Menu (Windows button) and tap/click  Bash on Ubuntu on Windows.

 

Possible issues with bash:

  1. It may be slow. I did not expect it to run smoothly on the very first build, but currently it definitely feels very clunky to use.
  2. It appears to have a host of DNS issues.  At least that’s what i think prevented the shell from properly resolving domain related actions. I also had difficulty using the IP itself, maybe that functionality has yet to be enabled?
  3. Apt-get did not initially work.

I did manage to get it to work after I updated resolv.conf. If you have the same issue you can update it in the following manner:

Type:

cd /etc
nano resolv.conf

You’ll need to add too lines to the config file

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

 

To save the conf file hit CTRL + X key and choose Y

If you can’t install Bash due to 0x800c0008 error

Downloading from the Windows Store… 0%Error: 0x800c0008″ 

Some people were not able to download and install Bash from the Microsoft store. If you also get the 0x800c0008 error you can use the following workaround:

  1. Open windows Search (win+S), search for Internet options, open the menu.
  2. Click on the Advanced tab, then select Restore Advanced settings
  3. Now close the menu by clicking on OK
  4. Try installing Bash again. Hopefully it will work this time
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About the author

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Violet George

Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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