In this article, we will see how to solve WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80370114 if you are also getting this error in your System. Sometimes when you are trying to install Linux on WSL then you might have observed this WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80370114. This error usually occurs when Hyper-V service is blocked during the linux installation. Without Hyper-V service up and running, linux installation won't start. There could be few reasons for Hyper-V service not running in your System. We will see all those reasons along with the steps to solve the error.

 

Solved "WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80370114"

Also Read: Solved: 'VBoxManage' is not recognized as an internal or external command

So in my case when I tried installing Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS, I ended up in having WslRegisterDistribution failed with error: 0x80370114 as you can see below.

Above error could occur due to multiple reasons, one of the most frequent reason is that Hyper-V is currently not enabled in your System. This means Hyper-V Host Compute Service, aka vmcompute.exe which is responsible for making Hyper-V service up and running is currently not enabled. Along with this, Virtual Machine Worker Process, aka vmwp.exe which is responsible for running the instances in Hyper-V hosts is also not enabled. So here we are going to enable both the features using CLI mode and then we will verify the enabled feature in Program settings.

Step 1: Enable Feature

In the first step, you need to enable Microsoft Windows Subsystem feature. To enable this feature, open CLI terminal in administrator mode and run dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart command as shown below.

C:\>dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19044.2486

Enabling feature(s)
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

Next, you need to enable another feature called VirtualMachinePlatform using dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart command as shown below.

C:\>dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.844

Image Version: 10.0.19044.2486

Enabling feature(s)
[==========================100.0%==========================]
The operation completed successfully.

After that restart your system once. Once restarted, go to Step 2 to verify the enabled feature.

 

Step 2: Verify Exploit Protection Settings

You need to first search Windows Security in the search bar as shown below. Once it shows up, tap on it to open.

Next, you need to go to App & browser control as highlighted below. Please do not click on Turn on if you don't want to turn it on. You just need to click on below highlighted area to go inside the settings.

Next you need to click on Exploit protection settings under Exploit protection as highlighted below.

Under System settings Control Flow Guard (CFG) should be "On" by default and under Program settings, you need to make sure both vmcompute.exe and vmwp.exe are available with Control Flow Guard set to below.

• Override System Settings
• On
• Use Strict CFG

After validating the programs under system settings and program settings, if you now try to start Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS again, you will notice that it will start successfully as shown below.

If after following above steps, you are still getting the same error then you need to check your default WSL version. You need to set your default WSL version to 2 and then restart the system one more time to see if it now fixed the issue.

C:\>wsl --set-default-version 2
For information on key differences with WSL 2 please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2
The operation completed successfully.

Hope above given solution should be enough to fixed your error. Please let me know your feedback in the comment box !!