WSL Version 2 requires Windows version 2004 or higher, with OS Build 19041 or greater. Here is a guide on how to [get WSL2](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10).
- Locate the _Windows_ path to the SerenityOS disk image, as native QEMU will be accessing it via the Windows filesystem. If your build tree is located in the WSL2 partition, this will be accessible under the `\\wsl$` network file share (see [notes below](#note-on-filesystems)).
The steps above will run QEMU in software virtualisation mode, which is very slow.
QEMU supports hardware acceleration on Windows via the [Windows Hypervisor Platform](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/api/) (WHPX), a user-mode virtualisation API that can be used alongside Hyper-V.
This is important to note as WSL2 itself runs on top of Hyper-V, which conflicts with other acceleration technologies such as Intel HAXM.
To run SerenityOS in a WHPX-enabled QEMU VM:
- If you have not already done so, enable Windows Hypervisor Platform, either using "Turn Windows features on or off", or by running the following command in an elevated PowerShell session: \
For a more in depth explaination of the technical limitations of their approach, see [this issue on the WSL github](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197#issuecomment-604592340)
The recommendation from the Microsoft team on that issue is:
WSL2 installation without going via the 9P network file share. The root of your WSL2 distro will begin at the network path `\\wsl$\{distro-name}`.
Alternatively, you may prefer to copy `Build/_disk_image` and `Build/Kernel/Kernel` to a native Windows partition (e.g. `/mnt/c`) before running `make run`, in which case `SERENITY_DISK_IMAGE` will be a regular Windows path (e.g. `'D:\serenity\_disk_image'`)
