How to Mount Ext4 in Windows 10/11

If you want to use Windows in dual booting with Linux, sometimes you will need to copy files from one operating system to another. There are no problems with opening Windows partitions on Linux because it has excellent support for the NTFS file system. But you can't open Ext4 or other Linux filesystems in Windows by default.

In this article, I will show a few ways to mount ext4 in Windows 10 or 11. You can add an Ext4 driver to the Windows or just extract required files using special applications.

Table of Contents

• Mounting Ext4 in Windows Tutorial
  • 1. Ext2fsd Driver
  • 2. Ext4fsd Driver
  • 3. Linux Filesystems for Windows by Paragon
• Extract files from Ext4 partitions in Windows
  • 1. Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • 2. Diskinternals Linux Reader
• Wrapping Up

Mounting Ext4 in Windows Tutorial

1. Ext2fsd Driver

First of all, you can use an open-source Ext* filesystems driver for Windows that is called ex2fsd. It hasn't been updated since 2017, but still works. I was able to start and successfully use this driver in Windows 10 but not in Windows 11.

You can download an installer for your version of Windows on the releases page of the project on GitHub. The installation process is easy, just press the Next button in each installation wizard window. Only the following step is interesting:

Here you can configure whether the driver should be loaded automatically on the system startup and whether it has writing support for Ext2 and Ext4 filesystems. Check the checkboxes which you want and press Next. In the next window check the Start Ext2 Volume Manager right now to assign drive letters for your ext2/ext3 partitions checkbox to start the mounting manager now:

Here is the main application window:

Here you can see all available partitions, their size, and their filesystem. Double-click on any of them to mount it.

Here are two mounting options:

• Automatically mount via Ext2Mgr - the partition will be mounted for the current session, the application will not mount it after reboot automatically.
• Mountpoint for fixed disk - the partition will be permanently mounted with the same name on the system startup.

Select the drive letter for the partition near the chosen mount type. Also, you can specify in the Hiding files with prefix field which prefixes are used for hidden files. By default, all files which start from a dot are hidden in Linux. After this press the Apply button.

Pay attention that the window with mounting settings should look as well as the window on the screenshot above. If it looks different, something went wrong. If the application does not work, ensure that there are no other applications for mounting Ext4 running or installed. Try to reinstall the application.

If everything is good, open This Computer and you will see your Ext4 drive mounted. The Ext2fsd driver allows you to work with Ext4 partitions as well as you work with regular NTFS or FAT partitions.

2. Ext4fsd Driver

If you want to use Ext2fsd in Windows 11, there's a solution. In early 2024, a fork of Ext2fsd was made, and it includes a signed Ext4 driver that can work on systems with Secure Boot and supports more features of the modern Ext4 file system. As of writing this article, the driver is still in the testing phase, but in my case, it works perfectly in Windows 11. Before you can install the program, you must install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, version 2017 or later. You can download it from the official website. Launch the installer and follow all the steps in the installation wizard:

You can download the Ext4fsd installer from the Releases page on the project's GitHub repository. Installation is straightforward: simply click Install and wait for the process to finish.

After installation, launch the Ext2 Volume Manager from the Start menu. Since this is a fork of Ext2fsd, the same Volume Manager is used here and the settings are the same. You can view all available Ext4 file system partitions in the main window of the application:

As before, there are two options for mounting the partition. For example, check the box near to Automatically mount via Ext2Mgr and select the drive letter you want to use:

Once you've completed this step, you should find the mounted partition in Explorer.

3. Linux Filesystems for Windows by Paragon

Paragon Software is the same company that added a new NTFS driver to the Linux kernel in 2021. Also, they developed an application for mounting Ext4 in Windows. It is a filesystem driver as well as Ext2fsd and it is actively maintained and developed. Also, it has a modern user interface. You can mount and unmount Ext4 partitions for reading and writing. In addition, you can mount XFS and Btrfs but only for reading.

The application is paid, but it has a trial version that can be used for 10 days for free. Its price at the moment of writing is almost 20 euros.

You can download a trial version from the official site. The installation process has nothing unusual, just press the Next button for each step as well as in the previous section. On the activation step, you should start your trial period or activate a license:

When the installation is complete, the main application window will be opened. The application will mount all available partitions with Linux filesystems:

On the left side of the window, you can find the list of available partitions, and on the right - detailed information about each of them. You can unmount the partition by pressing the Unmount button or the button with an arrow near its name:

Also, you can check the partitions for errors using the Verify button or format it using the Format button. If you don't want to mount this partition automatically in the future, disable this feature at the bottom of the window:

When a partition is unmounted you can mount it by clicking the Mount button. The application will open a new window when you can choose a mounting mode and a volume drive letter:

Then, just open This computer and choose the mounted disk to get access to your files. Now, all Linux partitions are available in Windows. Also, you can use the Open in Explorer button in the application:

Extract files from Ext4 partitions in Windows

1. Windows Subsystem for Linux

If you need to access a Ext4 from Windows just once to retrieve a few files or copy something there, and you don't want to install any third-party software, you can use the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This will work on both Windows 10 and 11. In case of Windows 10 you will need build 2004 or later.

This subsystem allows running a Linux distribution environment within Windows. So you can run Ubuntu, grant it access to a specific disk, mount that disk within the environment, and then gain the ability to browse those files directly in the Windows Explorer.

However, this method has a significant drawback: you need to give the Linux distribution control of the entire disk containing the desired partition. If that disk holds the Windows system partition or has other mounted partitions, the approach won't work, and you'll have to look for another solution. You can find more information about this issue here.

To install WSL, simply open a command prompt with administrator privileges or PowerShell and run the following command:

wsl --install

The command activates all the necessary components, downloads and installs the Linux environment. By default, the Ubuntu distribution will be used. After executing the command, you need to restart the computer. After reboot, the WSL installation will continue, and you will need to specify a username and password for Linux.

Next, we need to determine which disk and partition to mount in WSL. To view the list of physical disks, open the Command Prompt and run the following command:

wmic diskdrive list brief

The output will show the disk identifier in the DeviceID field and the disk size in the Size field. In this example, Windows is installed on disk PHYSICALDRIVE0, while PHYSICALDRIVE1 contains the Linux partition we need to mount. If you're unsure which disk is which, you can try identifying them by size. For example, I know my Linux disk is 40GB. However, a more convenient way to identify the disks is to use the Disk Management tool. To access it, right-click on This PC, then select Manage -> Disk Management.

Here you will see a list of all disks and their partitions, displayed with their size and labels in a readable format.

Now that you know the disk number and partition number, you can use WSL's --mount option to mount drive and partition with the Ext4 filesystem. For example:

wsl --mount \.PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 2

Once mounted, the partition will be available in WSL under /mnt/wsl/PHYSICALDRIVE1p2. You can also access it from the File Explorer by navigating to Linux -> Ubuntu -> /mnt/wsl and then selecting your disk name.

To unmount the disk, execute the following command:

wsl --unmount \.PHYSICALDRIVE1

If you receive the WSL_E_ELEVATION_NEEDED_TO_MOUNT_DISK error during mounting, you need to restart the command prompt with administrator privileges. This will be the simplest method to access Ext4 in Windows, especially if you're comfortable

2. Diskinternals Linux Reader

It is the simplest way to open Ext4 in Windows 10 or 11. This application can help you to extract required files from Linux partitions without adding support for this filesystem to Windows. You can download the application from the official site. Then run the installer and just continue pressing the Next button as well as for other applications.

The main application window looks like this:

Here you can choose the required partition with the Ext4 filesystem and view all files which are located there:

The application supports searching too. Just enter the file name, which you want to find and the application will highlight it in the list.

To extract any of the files or folders, right-click on it and choose Save in the contextual menu. Then choose Save files:

Then, choose the destination folder which will be used for saving the file:

Check the Save directory structure flag if you want. On the next step ensure that all files which you want to extract are in the list and press the Next button:

Finally, wait until the extracting process is complete and do what you want with the files in Windows Explorer.

Wrapping Up

Now, you have learned how to open Ext4 in Windows 10 and 11. The open-source driver Ext2fsd still works despite not being updated for a long time. If it does not work in your system, you can use Ext4fsd, Diskinternals or a proprietary driver from Paragon.

There also exist other tools which not described in this article. For example, e2explore. It was discontinued in 2012 and I was unable to launch it. Also, you can find information about utilities which can convert Ext4 into NTFS. But be careful with them. Don't convert the root or home partition, because this will break your Linux system.