What You Need to Know
Start by installing WSL2 if you do not already have it. Open PowerShell as admin and run wsl --install. This installs Ubuntu by default. After reboot, open the Ubuntu terminal and verify with wsl --version. Make sure you are on WSL2, not WSL1 — the performance and compatibility differences are significant.
Inside your WSL2 environment, install Node.js 22+ using nvm or the NodeSource repository. Then run the standard OpenClaw installer: curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash. Follow with openclaw onboard --install-daemon and openclaw doctor to verify the installation is healthy.
The most common Windows-specific issues are path differences, permission conflicts, and WSL networking quirks. If openclaw dashboard does not open in your browser, check that localhost forwarding from WSL to Windows is working — newer WSL2 versions handle this automatically, but older setups may need manual port forwarding or wsl.exe hostname resolution.
For plugin and skill installations, ensure that npm and pnpm commands run correctly inside WSL2. Some users experience spawn EINVAL errors when npm invocations cross the WSL/Windows boundary — the fix in v2026.3.1+ addresses this, but keeping your OpenClaw version current is the best preventive measure.
Once the base setup works, the experience is identical to Linux. Workspace files, channels, cron jobs, and heartbeat all behave the same way. If you plan to run OpenClaw 24/7, consider setting up a systemd service inside WSL2 or using Windows Task Scheduler to start WSL on boot automatically.