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David Foster
David Foster

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How to Fix the Annoying WSL "Press any key to install" Popup on Windows 11 (After Uninstalling WSL)

#microsoft #tooling #tutorial

TL;DR: If you're getting a terminal window nagging you to install WSL on every boot after you've already uninstalled it, the culprit is likely the P9RdrService (Plan 9 Redirector Service). Disable it in Services and the popup goes away.

The Problem

You uninstalled Windows Subsystem for Linux. You disabled the WSL feature. You removed your Ubuntu distros. And yet, every single time you boot your PC, you're greeted with this annoying terminal window:

Windows Subsystem for Linux must be updated to the latest version to proceed.
You can update by running 'wsl.exe --update'.
For more information please visit https://aka.ms/wslinstall

Press any key to install Windows Subsystem for Linux.
Press CTRL-C or close this window to cancel.
This prompt will time out in 60 seconds.
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You close it. You reboot. It's back. You scream into the void. Microsoft doesn't hear you, and A.I. doesn't know how to help (yet).

The Solution

Disable P9RdrService.

Option 1: PowerShell (Run as Administrator) 

Stop-Service -Name "P9RdrService" -Force
Set-Service -Name "P9RdrService" -StartupType Disabled
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Option 2: Services GUI

  1. Press Win+R, type services.msc, press Enter
  2. Find P9RdrService (it might have a suffix like P9RdrService_xxxxx)
  3. Right-click → Properties
  4. Set Startup type to Disabled
  5. Click Stop if it's running
  6. Click OK

Reboot. The popup should be gone.

What is P9RdrService?

P9RdrService stands for Plan 9 Redirector Service. It's part of WSL's file-sharing infrastructure, using the Plan 9 filesystem protocol (9P) to let Windows and Linux share files.

Even after you uninstall WSL, this service can remain installed. When it starts, it tries to communicate with WSL components that no longer exist, which triggers the update prompt.

How I Found the Solution

After exhausting the fixes Gemini and Claude suggested (see appendix), I needed to figure out what was actually spawning wsl.exe. Enter Process Monitor (Procmon) from Microsoft's Sysinternals suite.

Setting Up Procmon to Log at Boot

The popup appears during boot, before you can manually start Procmon. So you need to enable boot logging:

  1. Open Procmon as Administrator
  2. Go to Options → Enable Boot Logging
  3. Reboot your PC
  4. After logging in, open Procmon again — it'll prompt you to save the boot log
  5. Save it and let it load

Finding the Culprit

With the boot log loaded, I filtered for wsl:

  1. Filter → Filter... (or Ctrl+L)
  2. Add filter: Process Name → contains → wsl
  3. Click Add, then OK

This showed me every operation involving wsl.exe during boot. The very first execution of wsl.exe showed its parent's PID in the detail column.

I removed the wsl filter and performed a new filter for the PID calling the wsl.exe process.

This homed me in on svchost, calling a bunch of processes as Windows 11 was booting up. I performed a "Find" query (different than filtering) by pressing ctrl + f and searched for "wsl".

The first match showed what was going on:

  1. svchost.exe trying to open the Store version of WSL at C:\Users\...\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForLinux...\wsl.exe
  2. Result: PATH NOT FOUND (the folder was empty — I'd already uninstalled WSL)
  3. Windows fell back to the stub at C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe
  4. Result: SUCCESS — it found the stub and executed it with --update --confirm --prompt-before-exit
  5. That stub launched the "Press any key to install WSL" popup

Identifying Which Service Was Responsible

svchost.exe is just a container that hosts multiple Windows services. To find out which service was triggering this, I right-clicked on one of the svchost.exe entries in Procmon associated with wsl, selected Properties, and looked at the Command Line:

C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k P9RdrService -p -s P9RdrService
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The -k P9RdrService flag identifies the service. That's the Plan 9 Redirector — a leftover WSL component that Windows failed to clean up during uninstallation.

Appendix: What I Tried Before Procmon

Removing WSL Windows Features

Settings → Apps → Optional features → More Windows features → Unchecked:

  • Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • Virtual Machine Platform

Popup still appeared.

Cleaning Up Windows Terminal Profiles

Deleted leftover Ubuntu profiles from Windows Terminal's settings.json:

{
    "guid": "{d8e96812-b789-5068-a5ae-10b2fb53e95f}",
    "name": "Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS",
    "source": "CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu24.04LTS_79rhkp1fndgsc"
}
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Popup still appeared.

Removing the WSL AppX Package 

Get-AppxPackage *WindowsSubsystemForLinux* | Remove-AppxPackage
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Package was already gone. Popup still appeared.

Checking Startup Apps and Scheduled Tasks

Checked Task Manager startup tab, shell:startup, and Task Scheduler.

Nothing WSL-related. Popup still appeared. 😫

Summary

Symptom Cause Fix
WSL install popup on every boot after uninstalling WSL P9RdrService still running Disable P9RdrService in Services

Tested on Windows 11 25H2

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