Ubuntu on Windows showing WSL as not enabled, even though Windows showing WSL as enabled

Question

When I launch Ubuntu, I receive the following error:

The WSL optional component is not enabled. Please enable it and try again.
See https://aka.ms/wslinstall for details.
Error: 0x8007007e
Press any key to continue...

However, when I check features in PowerShell using Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online, I see the following:

FeatureName : Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
State       : Enabled

Would appreciate any assistance.

Solution

After searching through this thread https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/2316 I decided to try disabling WSL, rebooting, Enabling WSL, rebooting and launching Ubuntu seems to have solved the problem. Seemingly due to a bug with how dependencies are handled when the application is installed from the Windows store.

Comments

[shaik moeed]

I'm also facing the same issue. Getting RestartRequired : Required after restarting several times. and not able to launch Ubuntu.

[Ramhound]

Sounds like you had the optional feature installed when you were running 1703, and you never bothered to reinstall it after you upgraded to 1709. In that case, the first error was indeed right, the final version of the feature was indeed not installed. What was installed was the beta feature and the legacy WSL instance of Ubuntu, but you were mistakingly, attempting to launch the updated Windows Store WSL instance of Ubuntu.