Working in the Linux Home Folder (WSL2)
Most of the time, you should work in your OneDrive folder — your files stay backed up and shareable. But if WSL feels slow with large projects, you can work in your Linux home folder instead.
When to use the Linux home folder
- Large git repositories with thousands of files
- Heavy file I/O — projects that read and write many files rapidly
- Build-intensive projects — compiling code, running large test suites
For typical research tasks (analyzing a CSV, drafting a paper, writing a grant), OneDrive is fine.
Where is the Linux home folder?
In your Ubuntu terminal, run:
This shows something like /home/jane. That's your Linux home folder.
Access it from Explorer
If you pinned it earlier, it's already in your Explorer Quick access.
Copy files between OneDrive and Linux home
Your OneDrive is accessible from WSL. You can copy files back and forth:
# Copy a file from OneDrive to your Linux home
cp /mnt/c/Users/jane/OneDrive/my-project/data.csv ~/my-project/
# Copy results back to OneDrive when done
cp ~/my-project/results.csv /mnt/c/Users/jane/OneDrive/my-project/
Backup reminder
Files in your Linux home folder are NOT backed up by OneDrive. If you work here, use git to track your changes and push to GitHub regularly.