Microsoft has introduced Rust Coreutils for Windows, enabling a range of familiar "Linux-like" command-line utilities to function natively within the Windows ecosystem. This new offering is based on uutils, a Rust-based reimplementation of GNU Coreutils, which has been integrated into recent Ubuntu releases.
The package includes fundamental utilities such as cat, cp, ls, mv, and uptime. However, it’s important to note that commands relying on POSIX-only features — like chmod, chown, and kill — are not part of this release.
What makes this development particularly noteworthy is that these tools do not run through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or any similar compatibility layer; they are installed directly and accessible from Windows shells such as Command Prompt and PowerShell.
This initiative is especially relevant to Linux developers who often must use Windows for work, making Linux tools available on the platform. To install Coreutils, users can utilize WinGet with the following command:
winget install Microsoft.CoreutilsAlternatively, a standalone executable installer can be downloaded from the project’s GitHub page.
Microsoft’s reasoning behind introducing Coreutils to Windows is to allow developers to use consistent commands, flags, and pipelines across Windows, Linux, and macOS, thereby minimizing the need for Linux usage altogether.
However, users should be aware that the behavior of these tools may differ from their Linux counterparts due to discrepancies in the underlying systems, such as line endings and permission settings. Some commands may also conflict with existing commands in Windows shells, for which Microsoft has provided a compatibility table on their GitHub page.
The announcement of Coreutils for Windows was made during Microsoft’s Build 2026 event, where they also introduced WSL containers, facilitating the creation and running of Linux containers on Windows without resorting to third-party platforms like Docker Desktop.
For more information, visit the project GitHub page.