# Windows requirements
## Using WSL
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Since **magento-scripts\@1.6.0**
{% endhint %}
### 1. Install WSL
To install WSL2 on Windows follow [this guide](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10).
{% hint style="info" %}
For [step #6 Install your Linux distribution of choice](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10#step-6---install-your-linux-distribution-of-choice) we recommend choosing the latest Ubuntu release, as it has the best compatibility on Windows.
{% endhint %}
### 1.1 Install Windows Terminal (Optional)
On Windows with WSL, it is recommended to use [Windows Terminal](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/get-started).\
By using it you can open different shells and access different WSL distros in the same place, which is quite handy.
### 1.2 Install Visual Studio Code (Optional)
VSCode has excellent integration with WSL, so you can run commands, edit code and debug it inside a single editor.\
[Developing in WSL](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/wsl).
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### 2. Install Docker Desktop for Windows
Download and install [Docker Desktop for Windows](https://hub.docker.com/editions/community/docker-ce-desktop-windows).
### 3. Enable WSL 2 integration in Docker Desktop settings
Go to **Docker Desktop settings > General** and make sure that **Use the WSL 2 based engine** checkbox is checked.
Then, go to Resources >WSL Integration and enable WSL integration into your distro.
Toggle your distro and click **Apply & Restart**.
### 4. Install platform-specific dependencies:
{% hint style="warning" %}
Since **magento-scripts 1.4.0** CMA will also check installed dependencies before starting the application, and if they are missing will provide instructions on how to install them!
{% endhint %}
Full list of dependencies for each Linux distro available [here](https://docs.create-magento-app.com/v1/getting-started/installation-on-linux#1-install-platform-specific-dependencies).
{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Ubuntu" %}
```bash
apt-get install \
libcurl4-openssl-dev \
libonig-dev \
libjpeg-dev \
libjpeg8-dev \
libjpeg-turbo8-dev \
libpng-dev \
libicu-dev \
libfreetype6-dev \
libzip-dev \
libssl-dev \
build-essential \
libbz2-dev \
libreadline-dev \
libsqlite3-dev \
libssl-dev \
libxml2-dev \
libxslt1-dev \
libonig-dev \
php-cli \
php-bz2 \
pkg-config \
autoconf \
libsodium-dev
```
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}
### 5. Install PHPBrew
{% hint style="warning" %}
Since **magento-scripts\@1.7.0** this part will be done automatically.
{% endhint %}
To install PHPBrew on Linux you will need to follow [installation](https://github.com/phpbrew/phpbrew#installation) instructions or use the commands below:
```bash
# Download PHPBrew
curl -L -O https://github.com/phpbrew/phpbrew/releases/latest/download/phpbrew.phar
# Make it executable
chmod +x phpbrew.phar
# Move PHPBrew binary to system folder.
sudo mv phpbrew.phar /usr/local/bin/phpbrew
# Initialize PHPBrew
phpbrew init
```
### 6. Prepare the environment
To work with Magento you need access keys to access the Magento repository.
1. Go to
2. Generate Access Keypair
Now you have a **public key** and **private key** values.
To use them you have 2 options:
1. **Use `COMPOSER_AUTH` environmental variable**
This option is used as a global variable on your machine.
Replace `` and `` with your public and private key.
```bash
export COMPOSER_AUTH='{
"http-basic":{
"repo.magento.com": {
"username": "",
"password": ""
}
}
}'
```
Add the result to your `.bashrc` or `.zshrc` and reload your terminal.
2. **Use auth.json file**
This option is used on a per-project basis, so your credentials will be always correct no matter which project you are working on.
Create `auth.json` file in the root of your project and inside put the following content using the same `` and `` you obtained before:
```
{
"http-basic":{
"repo.magento.com": {
"username": "",
"password": ""
}
}
}
```
### 7. Start your application
{% hint style="info" %}
Start command description can be found [here](https://docs.create-magento-app.com/v1/getting-started/available-commands/start).\
To access Magento CLI, Composer and PHP use [cli](https://docs.create-magento-app.com/v1/getting-started/available-commands/cli) command.
{% endhint %}
## Using VM
As an option, you can run CMA on Windows using a Linux VM running in [Virtual Box](https://www.virtualbox.org/) (free) or [VMWare Workstation Player](https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player.html) (paid).\
We recommend using [Ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) or [Fedora](https://getfedora.org/en/workstation/download/) distros, although [Linux Mint](https://linuxmint.com/download.php), [CentOS](https://www.centos.org/download/) and distros based on `apt` , `pacman`, `yum`, `dnf` package managers should also work.\
[Installation guide](https://docs.create-magento-app.com/v1/getting-started/prerequisites/installation-on-linux) for this option is the same as installing on a common Linux platform.