Hyper-V and WSL2 Network Fix for Linux Developers

Prerequisites

You must have "Administrator" privileges on your system to run this script
Script tested onyl on Windows 10 21H1 with PowerShell 5 and 7.1
The script uses the PowerShell Gallery community module "LoopbackAdapter". This Module is not maintained by Microsoft, and uses external binaries to manage virtual hardware on your system.

Usage

Start by cloning this repository, or downloading its contents to your system. Open a PowerShell prompt in the directory with this script and run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted
.\Install-DeveloperFix.ps1

Optionally, you can revert to your original Execution Policy after the installation. If you care. You probably shouldn't care, since PowerShell execution policies are a ruse.

By default the script reserves the IP address range 172.16.0.0/12 for use by your coporate network. You can use optional parameters to the script to reserve the 192.168.0.0/16 range, or a different single range, of your choosing.

Help is available though the usual PowerShell syntax:

.\Install-DeveloperFix.ps1 -?
Get-Help .\Install-DeveloperFix.ps1 --Full

Background information

Hyper-V? WSL? What do I do with these?

Linux developers who choose (or are forced) to use Windows will benefit greatly from the use the the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and the Hyper-V virtualization engine. These are powerful tools that enable developers (and other IT pros such as systems administrators and analysts) to run Linux operating systems, tools, and containers quickly and efficiently, while still having access to the broad base of Windows productivity tools.

Great! So what is the problem?

Unfortunately, these tools often run into problems with corporate use of private network ranges, especially when the developer using the system roams between remote and on-site work, or needs a VPN connection.

The comes from Hyper-V selecting private network ranges for internal use based on the networks that it can "see" when the system starts up. If the private networks in use change after startup, there may be a network collision. Networking inside the Hyper-V and WSL VMs then fail, and sometimes general networking on the host Windows system deteriorates as well. Microsoft does not appear to be interested in fixing this common problem.

So what can I do about that? Get a Mac?

Sure, you could get a Mac, or install Ubuntu. OR... you can just run the "Install-DeveloperFix.ps1" script in this repository, and your life will be good again.*

This tool will install a Loopback network adapter and startup and shutdown scripts that are designed to "trick" the Hyper-V (and WSL) network collision avoidance algorithm into using a network range of our choosing that we know will not collide with our corporate internal private networks.

I have experimented with muliple alternative solutions to this problem. Only the approach in this script appears to work across multiple reboots of the system.

*Ongoing life goodness not guaranteed.