WSL: Ubuntu 24.04

I just installed WSL on Windows 11 and also installed Ubuntu 24.04.

But I noticed that in WSL, Ubuntu has a dramatically lower network speed (wget or git clone). Download speeds on WSL seem to be about 10-20 kb/s, whereas Windows download speed is 100 Mbps.

Metrics can be got from speedtest-cli

$ sudo apt install speedtest-cli

$ speedtest-cli

1. Root Cause:

While being helpful detecting some common Windows malwares, Windows Defender in GNU/Linux side it’s so inefficient and actually unhelpful.

Every time you try to access/read/write some file/folder, Windows Defender intercept WSL requisition for antivirus scanning, slowing down things until you hate everything in WSL!

2. Solution

 go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Defender > Open Windows Defender Secutiry Central > Protection Against Viruses & Threats > Advanced Config… > Exclusions > Add or Remove > Add > Folder and finally paste the Ubuntu path.

1. Find the Ubuntu or other VM where you installed in WSL.

2. Go to Windows Defender Secutiry Central.

3. Add the VM path into the Exclusions.

4. Enjoy the high-speed downloading in WSL again.

Reference:

https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4901

Speeding up WSL I/O up than 5x fast + saving a lot of battery life & CPU usage