Fixing wsl-vpnkit Auto-start Dying After Login

27 May 2026

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Problem

I set up wsl-vpnkit auto-start with Task Scheduler in my previous post, but it turned out the task triggers fine at login and then dies about a minute later.

PS> Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName "wsl-vpnkit" | Get-ScheduledTaskInfo
 
LastRunTime    : 2026/05/27 09:04:46
LastTaskResult : 1

The return code is 2147942401 (0x80070001) and the WSL distro ends up Stopped, so there’s no internet inside WSL until I run wsl-vpnkit manually. Kinda defeats the whole point of auto-start.

Why it dies

Task Scheduler runs wsl.exe in a non-interactive session with no TTY attached, but wsl-vpnkit is a foreground daemon that needs one. After about a minute the host wsl.exe exits, vpnkit dies with it, and the distro shuts down. This is a known issue.

I tried nohup to detach from the TTY but the process exited immediately, and wrapping the command in wt.exe via Task Scheduler didn’t work either because GUI apps don’t render in Task Scheduler’s non-interactive session.

Fix

The Startup folder runs things in the actual user desktop session, same as if you launched it yourself, so just use that instead.

First delete the old task:

Unregister-ScheduledTask -TaskName "wsl-vpnkit" -Confirm:$false

Then create a shortcut in Startup that opens Windows Terminal and runs wsl-vpnkit:

$WshShell = New-Object -ComObject WScript.Shell
$StartupPath = [Environment]::GetFolderPath('Startup')
$Shortcut = $WshShell.CreateShortcut("$StartupPath\wsl-vpnkit.lnk")
$Shortcut.TargetPath = "wt.exe"
$Shortcut.Arguments = '--window 0 new-tab --title "wsl-vpnkit" wsl.exe -d wsl-vpnkit --cd /app wsl-vpnkit'
$Shortcut.Save()

While you’re at it, kill the WSL idle timeout so the distro doesn’t auto-shutdown when nothing’s actively running:

# %USERPROFILE%\.wslconfig
[wsl2]
networkingMode=nat
vmIdleTimeout=-1

Reboot and you’ll see the terminal pop up at login with vpnkit running.

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