Settings: Add pending changes tracking and apply confirmation dialog by dabhattimsft · Pull Request #14425 · microsoft/WSL

dabhattimsft · 2026-03-12T19:45:39Z

Summary of the Pull Request

Adds "Apply Changes" workflow to the WSL Settings app. Settings changes are now tracked as pending and only written to disk when the user confirms, giving clear visibility into what will change.

PR Checklist

Closes: Link to issue #xxx
Communication: I've discussed this with core contributors already. If work hasn't been agreed, this work might be rejected
Tests: Added/updated if needed and all pass
Localization: All end user facing strings can be localized
Dev docs: Added/updated if needed
Documentation updated: If checked, please file a pull request on our docs repo and link it here: #xxx

Detailed Description of the Pull Request / Additional comments

SetWslConfigSetting no longer writes to disk immediately. Instead it records changes in a pending dictionary, comparing against the persisted value to auto-remove no-op edits.

New PendingChangesChanged event so the UI can react when the pending set becomes non-empty or empty.

"Apply changes" button appears at the bottom of each settings page (Developer, FileSystem, MemAndProc, Networking, OptionalFeatures) when there are pending changes.
- "Shutdown WSL now" — commits all pending changes to disk and runs wsl --shutdown so they take effect on next launch.
- "Later" — commits changes to disk without shutting down; settings apply on the next WSL start.
- Dismiss / close — leaves changes pending (nothing is written).

Validation Steps Performed

Manually tested

Copilot

Pull request overview

Adds an “Apply changes” workflow to the WinUI-based WSL Settings app by tracking configuration edits as pending, and only committing them to disk after explicit user confirmation (optionally followed by wsl --shutdown).

Changes:

Introduces pending-changes tracking in IWslConfigService/WslConfigService, with a new PendingChangesChanged event and commit/clear APIs.
Updates Settings view models/pages to react to pending state (HasPendingChanges) and show an “Apply changes” button.
Adds an apply confirmation dialog that summarizes pending edits and offers “Shutdown WSL now” vs “Later”.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs	New helper that builds and shows the apply/confirm dialog and triggers commit + optional shutdown.
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/DeveloperPage.xaml(.cs)	Adds “Apply changes” button and hooks pending-changes notifications.
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/FileSystemPage.xaml(.cs)	Adds “Apply changes” button and hooks pending-changes notifications.
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/MemAndProcPage.xaml(.cs)	Adds “Apply changes” button and hooks pending-changes notifications.
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/NetworkingPage.xaml(.cs)	Adds “Apply changes” button and hooks pending-changes notifications.
src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/OptionalFeaturesPage.xaml(.cs)	Adds “Apply changes” button and hooks pending-changes notifications.
src/windows/wslsettings/ViewModels/Settings/WslConfigSettingViewModel.cs	Adds `HasPendingChanges` property + handler to update UI when pending state changes.
src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs	Implements pending dictionary, commit/clear APIs, and new pending-changes event.
src/windows/wslsettings/Contracts/Services/IWslConfigService.cs	Extends contract with pending-changes APIs and `WslConfigPendingChange` model.
src/windows/wslsettings/CMakeLists.txt	Adds the new helper source file to the build.
localization/strings/en-US/Resources.resw	Adds localized strings for apply dialog/buttons and error messages.

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

benhillis · 2026-03-13T17:11:55Z

This seems like a lot of code to handle this. Instead could we just keep track of the config struct when we launch and compare it to the current config (and then update that initial struct when we click apply / shutdown / whatever).

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 8 comments.

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/FileSystemPage.xaml.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/DeveloperPage.xaml.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/OptionalFeaturesPage.xaml.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/NetworkingPage.xaml.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/MemAndProcPage.xaml.cs

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Copilot · 2026-03-19T23:09:14Z

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

+        var changeLines = new List<string>(pendingChanges.Count);
+        foreach (var change in pendingChanges)
+        {
+            changeLines.Add($"- {GetSettingDisplayName(change.ConfigEntry)}: {FormatSettingValue(change.PendingSetting)}");


The pending-changes lines are constructed with hardcoded punctuation/formatting ("- {name}: {value}"). This makes part of the user-facing dialog content non-localizable and may not read well in all locales. Consider using a localized format string/resource (or a structured UI like a ListView) to format each entry.

Suggested change

changeLines.Add($"- {GetSettingDisplayName(change.ConfigEntry)}: {FormatSettingValue(change.PendingSetting)}");

changeLines.Add(string.Format(

"Settings_ApplyChangesDialogChangeLineFormat".GetLocalized(),

GetSettingDisplayName(change.ConfigEntry),

FormatSettingValue(change.PendingSetting)));

The name and value are both already localized. The only hardcoded pieces are the bullet dash and colon. Won't fix for now unless reviewers say otherwise.

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

Copilot · 2026-03-19T23:09:16Z

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

@@ -27,41 +33,147 @@ public WslConfigService()
        _wslConfigFileSystemWatcher.Renamed += OnWslConfigFileChanged;

        _wslConfigFileSystemWatcher!.EnableRaisingEvents = true;
+
+        // Read all current config values into both snapshots so they start in sync
+        lock (_wslCoreConfigInterfaceLockObj!)
+        {
+            RefreshSnapshots_NoLock();
+        }
    }

    ~WslConfigService()
    {
+        DisposeSnapshot(_baselineSnapshot);
+        DisposeSnapshot(_workingSnapshot);
        WslCoreConfigInterface.FreeWslConfig(_wslConfig);
        WslCoreConfigInterface.FreeWslConfig(_wslConfigDefaults);
    }


WslConfigService creates a FileSystemWatcher but never disposes it. Since this service is a singleton, the watcher will keep OS handles for the app lifetime; and even at shutdown the finalizer currently doesn't dispose it. Consider implementing IDisposable and disposing/unsubscribing the watcher (and disabling events) when the app shuts down.

…/microsoft/WSL into user/dabhatti/wslSettingsRestart

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 16 out of 16 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs

src/windows/wslsettings/Services/WslConfigService.cs

Copilot · 2026-03-21T00:06:23Z

src/windows/wslsettings/Contracts/Services/IWslConfigService.cs

+    public required IWslConfigSetting PendingSetting { get; init; }
 }

 public interface IWslConfigSetting


GetPendingChanges() returns WslConfigPendingChange objects containing IWslConfigSetting instances that wrap unmanaged allocations (LibWsl.WslConfigSetting implements IDisposable). Since IWslConfigSetting doesn’t expose disposal, callers (like the Apply dialog) can’t deterministically free these clones, which can lead to avoidable unmanaged-memory growth. Consider changing WslConfigPendingChange to carry managed value snapshots (e.g., entry + strongly-typed value fields), or expose a disposable type (e.g., WslConfigSettingManaged / IDisposable) with clear ownership semantics.

Suggested change

public interface IWslConfigSetting

public interface IWslConfigSetting : System.IDisposable

Pre-existing. Can take it up in future PR

Darshak Bhatti added 3 commits March 5, 2026 17:48

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dabhattimsft requested review from benhillis and craigloewen-msft March 12, 2026 19:45

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Darshak Bhatti added 2 commits March 13, 2026 13:39

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src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs Show resolved Hide resolved

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src/windows/wslsettings/Views/Settings/SettingsApplyHelper.cs Show resolved Hide resolved

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Merge branch 'master' into user/dabhatti/wslSettingsRestart

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Darshak Bhatti added 3 commits March 20, 2026 14:58

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Merge branch 'user/dabhatti/wslSettingsRestart' of https://github.com…

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…/microsoft/WSL into user/dabhatti/wslSettingsRestart

refactor

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Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 21, 2026 00:01

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-            changeLines.Add($"- {GetSettingDisplayName(change.ConfigEntry)}: {FormatSettingValue(change.PendingSetting)}");
+            changeLines.Add(string.Format(
+                "Settings_ApplyChangesDialogChangeLineFormat".GetLocalized(),
+                GetSettingDisplayName(change.ConfigEntry),
+                FormatSettingValue(change.PendingSetting)));

	public interface IWslConfigSetting
	public interface IWslConfigSetting : System.IDisposable

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dabhattimsft commented Mar 12, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Summary of the Pull Request

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benhillis commented Mar 13, 2026

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dabhattimsft commented Mar 12, 2026 •

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