Thank you to Happysat who has shared with us a useful tutorial that explains how we can run Linux only SDR programs on a Windows 10 system using the Windows Subsystem For Linux (WSL) feature. WSL is a feature available on Windows 10 which is a Linux compatibility layer designed for running Linux binaries natively on Windows 10. This means that no Virtual Machine with shared resources is required, instead the full resources of your system are available.

Happysat writes:

Many people using Windows 10 now since Windows 7 is EOL, and WSL is part of the system kinda "free" so why not use it :) Together with a X-Server and and Desktop like XFCE4, it can be great for running SDR applications in Linux thru rtl_tcp. Very fast startup in seconds and not much packet loss thru tcp, quite alot linux sdr applications are working very good. No allocating resources like a VM. Sometimes better then Ubuntu on a VM. Software tested: AX-25 Packet Radio, Dab Radio, DSD, Es-Hail Beacon Tracker, Sat Tracking with Gpredict and Gqrx, NOAA Reception WxToImg, Radiosonde Decoding, Shortwave Reception and some more tips and tricks about WSl and SDR.

The steps appear to be fairly simple. Just enable WSL in the Windows 10 Features panel, download a Linux distro built for WSL and run the .exe file. Then you'll have access to a Linux terminal where you can install a GUI desktop environment, the RTL-SDR drivers, and other Linux SDR programs. Happysats tutorial shows how to install and use various Linux programs via WSL.

It seems that the RTL-SDR cannot be directly accessed via the USB in WSL, however, by the workaround is to simply run rtl_tcp in your Windows environment, and connect to the local IP in the Linux environment. This means that only programs that accept rtl_tcp as an input, or demodulated audio from a program like GQRX can be used.