How to install and run IDEA on Windows using WSLG – Support | JetBrains

Question

How to install and run IDEA on Windows 10 or 11 using WSLG?

Answer

First, please upgrade WSL and choose a WSL distribution from the Microsoft Store following the guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps ; here, take Ubuntu as an example.

First, install IDEA using the terminal:

# IDEA Community
# sudo snap install intellij-idea-community --classic
# IDEA Ultimate
sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic
# Below is for EAP build
# sudo snap install intellij-idea-ultimate --classic --edge

Then, install a browser to be used to log in and authoritarian the IDEA Ultimate, eg: Firefox

sudo snap install firefox
firefox

If you want to use Chrome, use the below command instead:

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo apt install --fix-missing ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
google-chrome

To run the IDEA Ultimate, try this command:

intellij-idea-ultimate

To run the IDEA Community, use this command:

intellij-idea-community

Now you can install some JDK through the IDEA or using command:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk
sudo apt-get install openjdk-17-jdk
sudo apt-get install openjdk-21-jdk

To uninstall the IDEA, use:

sudo snap remove intellij-idea-ultimate

Tip: You can pin the running IDEA process to the Windows taskbar to quickly start it:

Ref: The JDK install location under WSL:

\\wsl.localhost\Ubuntu-20.04\usr\lib\jvm\java-8-openjdk-amd64
\\wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\usr\lib\jvm\java-21-openjdk-amd64