Windows applications can no longer access WSL filesystem

[seppestas]

Windows Version

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22631.4602]

WSL Version

2.3.26.0

Are you using WSL 1 or WSL 2?

• WSL 2
• WSL 1

Kernel Version

5.15.167.4-microsoft-standard-WSL2

Distro Version

Ubuntu 22.04

Other Software

IntelliJ IDEA 2024.3.1.1 (Community Edition)
Python 3.12.6

Repro Steps

See #12373 for the original issue.

Launch a Windows application with a path relative to a path in the WSL filesystem from WSL, e.g.:

• Use IntelliJ IDEA on Windows to open a project in WSL (see https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-364386 and https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IJPL-172456/Terminal-is-not-starting-in-project-root).
• Use Windows python to run a Python script in the WSL filesystem
• Launch explorer.exe from WSL

Using a fully qualified WSL path (e.g. python.exe \\\\wsl$\\Ubuntu\\home\\seppe\\gps.py ) works as expected.

The original issue was automatically closed due to lack of "author feedback" despite specifying what feedback is missing.

Expected Behavior

The windows applications should be able to to access files and directories on the WSL filesystem. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/filesystems#file-storage-and-performance-across-file-systems.

Actual Behavior

All paths opened in Windows applications are relative to C:\Windows instead of the WSL working directory, preventing e.g. Python.exe from launching a Python script relative to the CWD.

The issue still exists, even after:

• Re-installing WSL
• Updating WSL to a pre-release version
• Installing a different WSL distribution (Ubuntu 2024.04)

Possibly related to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66392318/can-no-longer-access-wsl2-files-from-windows-explorer-or-launch-windows-programs

Diagnostic Logs

Strace opening home directory with explorer.exe from WSL: https://gist.github.com/seppestas/d5898ac51bbb172b7f17e772aa6070a0

Strace of running a hello world Python script in WSL with Windows python: https://gist.github.com/seppestas/9244021a1e59a8054ffe5735f1d16f74

WSL logs, Python script was attempted to run WslLogs-2025-01-06_18-17-10.zip

[github-actions]

View similar issues

Please view the issues below to see if they solve your problem, and if the issue describes your problem please consider closing this one and thumbs upping the other issue to help us prioritize it!

Open similar issues:

• Working directory not preserved when running Windows executable from WSL directory (#12291), similarity score: 0.73

Closed similar issues:

• Can not access wsl filesystem outside wsl (#6639), similarity score: 0.74
• win32 interop doesn't follow linux symbol links to NTFS folder on Win 10 v1903 (#4065), similarity score: 0.74
• Cannot access \wsl$ via Run and explorer.exe at /home/user not working (#7115), similarity score: 0.74
• Executables that access the WSL disks fail to open (#6656), similarity score: 0.74

Note: You can give me feedback by thumbs upping or thumbs downing this comment.

Diagnostic information

Found '/question', adding tag 'question'
Detected appx version: 2.3.26.0

[OneBlue]

This is interesting. I can't reproduce the issue so I wonder which python.exe. Which python.exe do you have installed ?

What's the output of which python.exe inside WSL ?

[seppestas]

This is interesting. I can't reproduce the issue so I wonder which python.exe. Which python.exe do you have installed ?

What's the output of which python.exe inside WSL ?

To clarify, this does not only impact Python. Any Windows application trying to open files or directories in WSL seems to be affected. Running Python scripts stored in WSL with Windows Python is just a common use-case for me.

The Python version I currently use is Python 3.12.6.

It looks like my issue is the same as #12291.