Combine PowerShell and diskpart to get your storage space back.

COMPACT_WSL_DISK.md

Compact WSL Disk

Combine PowerShell and diskpart to get your storage space back.

1. Ensure WSL is off

wsl --shutdown

2. Find the target distro

Sample output: Ubuntu-24.04

wsl --list

3. Find the disk path

Sample output: C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\wsl\{e3facf9c-8b16-3776-a92f-af9e81e751ec}\ext4.vhdx

(Get-ChildItem -Path HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Lxss | Where-Object { $_.GetValue("DistributionName") -eq 'Ubuntu-24.04' }).GetValue("BasePath") + "\ext4.vhdx"

4. Launch diskpart

4.1. Select the disk

select vdisk file="C:\Users\You\AppData\Local\wsl\{e3facf9c-8b16-3776-a92f-af9e81e751ec}\ext4.vhdx"

4.2. Attach, compact, detach

attach vdisk readonly
compact vdisk
detach vdisk

4.3. Done

exit