WSL is not responding to anything

[SaeidYazdani]

I am using Windows 11 and I think I had WSL2. Things were fine, but now WSL is not responding to anything... for example:

when I type in any WSL command it just does nothing, and I have to do CTRL+C to get back to the prompt.

wsl.exe does not respond to anything even "wsl.exe --list --all --verbose", all I get is a blinking prompt after I hit enter on any wsl command

I am about to freak out as I have lots of things to do in my WSL image

[SaeidYazdani]

OK, I figured out the problem was me disabling "Control Flow Guard" on my PC under "Exploit Protection". I turned it back ON and now things working again...

I have no idea what does WSL has to do with CFG... I need to disable CFG for some of my games to run smoothly on Windows 11 using DX12 API... but I guess I need to do it per-application basis and not globally.

Hope this can help others too.

[Reset816]

I got same issue and waste 3 hour to figure it out.
It's very strange.

[rudolpheric]

Same issue here but I have CFG activated.

[jesuisme]

To get to the CFG Settings:

• Click on Start and search for Windows Security
• Select App & browser Control
• Scroll down and select Exploit Protection Settings
• Select Control Flow Guard and in the drop down, choose Off by default

From https://www.thewindowsclub.com/control-flow-guard-windows

[Fallen-G]

Now I have the same problem, but with the difference that my CFG is open.

• I'm using Windows 11 (23440.1000)
• WSL 2
• Ubuntu OS
• after opening wsl and not operating it for a long time (about 20 hours) The above problem occurs

[ruoyiqiao]

Encountered the same issue today and the suggested solution worked for me.

[bozgi]

I love you, i have been trying to fix this since september. It works now! <3

[JedMasterson]

Dude, if only i saw this post yesterday when i just got in a same situation... You got the same problem and the same solution as i did. More people have to see this

[nik-55]

@JedMasterson what solution worked for you? I have CFG on in my system but still facing the same issue

[Merlin-1D]

My system had default settings (on), so I had to turn it off and on again first. Do not forget to reboot the system between changing the settings. Now everything is working

[enihsyou]

I have the same problem, and went here through Google search. WSL2 does not respond to any commands, wsl -l or wsl --shutdown also get stuck.

Found it related to Docker Desktop's Resource Save Mode, just click Resume on Resource save Mode and everything back to normal.

Issue reported here: #11066