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Xming

Xming is the leading free X Window Server for Microsoft Windows (XP/2003/Vista).  Unlike Cygwin/X it does not depend on the Cygwin environment. It is fully featured, small and fast because it is standalone native Microsoft Windows application.

Xming is secure when used with SSH and optionally includes an enhanced PuTTY Link SSH client and a portable PuTTY replacement package. Xming can work completely independent of the Window's registry when used with Xming-portablePuTTY. Interactive 3D graphics capability is provided compatible with OpenGL/ GLX.

Xming is cross-compiled on Linux for Microsoft Windows (32-bit x86), using MinGW, mainly from the canonical X.Org source code with patches applied. Public Domain version can be distributed and used without restriction.

Releases

Installers for 32-bit Windows

This essential installer includes the XLaunch wizard. Optional extras include the PuTTY Link for Xming SSH client and Tools and clients.

If you intend to use PuTTY make sure you correctly pick the PuTTY Link SSH client (plink), either for use with standard PuTTY or Xming-portablePuTTY (i.e. there are two different plink's in the installer).

You must associate XLaunch.exe with the .xlaunch file extension (an installer option, that is enabled by default) to get the X server quickstart feature (i.e. just one click runs Xming, the way you want, via a saved .xlaunch configuration file).

Xming uses Microsoft's OpenGL renderer interface as standard (i.e. unless a Mesa version). You need the Mesa libraries or a Mesa version when you have an awkward X client that's failing to display. Xming Mesa versions usually render most clients that use OpenGL.

The Xming executable has an absolute minimum of fonts; the so-called built-ins. X clients usually need extra fonts to supplement these...

Xming-fonts

Xming-portablePuTTY

Using Xming

What can you use Xming for?

• 'Project' your favourite X Window GUI applications onto a Microsoft Desktop.
• Use your Windows machine as just a thin client to Linux/Unix .
• Extend server-side X fonts to include any TrueType fonts on your Windows machine. These high quality fonts can be accessed, in situ, and added to the server font list.
• Use Xming with portablePuTTY as a Pocket PC X Server by copying both to a USB flash drive etc. Once made portable, no installed software or access to the Windows registry are needed.
• Use as a KVM substitute. No need for expensive hardware or a tangle of leads.
• Headless your Linux/Unix machines by removing keyboard, mouse, monitor and video card. Redirect the BIOS console and then access terminals via minicom (using a serial port) or PuTTY, and GUI's via Xming (using an ethernet).
• You can display remote X clients directly on a Windows Desktop without running a remote Display Manager and so free up the system resources used by that DM. Note however that use of XDMCP mode needs a remote DM running!
• You can use the Xming X server, just locally, together with coLinux, Cygwin, SFU (Microsoft Services for Unix) / SUA or UWIN.
• Use SSH and X-Forwarding in -multiwindow mode, instead of VNC, to reclaim precious resources (including desktop space) and facilitate cut-and-paste between windows.
• If you want focus-follows-mouse use Microsoft's PowerToy TweakUI to enable X-Mouse for -multiwindow mode.
• You can run Xming on multiple monitors in many ways, e.g. if you have two monitors on a Windows machine, you could put the full remote Linux/Unix session on the second monitor using

  >Xming -screen 0 @2 -query <IP of remote machine> -clipboard -nodecoration

• Configure a Linux kernel on a remote machine, 'make xconfig' i.e. using the convenient GUI method.
• Update remote machines via the distribution's GUI tools e.g. for Mandriva use mcc, rpmdriva and MandrivaUpdate.
• Install the Enlightened Sound Daemon, EsounD, to have sound with remote X applications.

    On the Xming machine start
  >esd.exe -tcp -public                Note: this is not really secure
    On the remote Linux/Unix machine
  $ export ESPEAKER=<IP of Xming PC>

  PulseAudio is an EsounD replacement, free of cygwin1.dll, that can also be used as a sound server.
• Xming can be used with external Windows window managers, such as xwinwm (via -mwextwm), openbox or twm (via -rootless). I test xwinwm with this script and twm with this script (xwinwm and openbox are available in Cygwin/X, twm is in Xming tools and clients). However using an alternative window manager on the Windows desktop is really only an amusing party trick, just use -multiwindow mode, run virtual machines or install Linux instead .

Manuals

Xming Manual. This doesn't contain any X server commands. You could view these with -help or run this XLaunch file. These online X.Org Manual pages also give more detail on server and client options, however they may be out-of-date. Note that not all generic options are logical for Windows or honoured by Xming.

Other manuals are available for XLaunch, Xmingrc, portablePuTTY, Xmon, the Run Utility and command line use of Xming's install and uninstall programs.

To simply start Xming in -multiwindow mode, with no access control, from Command Prompt or Start/Run.../Open:

"C:\Program Files\Xming\Xming.exe" -ac -multiwindow -clipboard
  Note: -ac is totally unsafe but simplifies server startup

If you have installed portablePuTTY or PuTTY, have a configured SSH server on your remote Linux/Unix machine, and have then tested and saved some PuTTY sessions, you could safely display an xterm like this

>Xming :0 -multiwindow -clipboard                   start Xming Server:0.0, then run
>plink -ssh -X -pw <password> <user@host> xterm     either, plink using <user@host>
>plink -pw <password> -load <sessname> xterm        or, plink using a PuTTY saved session <sessname>
  Note: pre-empt the need for the -pw <password> entries by using PuTTY's pageant key manager

>Xming :0 -multiwindow -clipboard                   start Xming Server:0.0, then run
>C:\cygwin\bin\ssh -Y <user@host> xterm             ssh using <user@host> (no saved sessions possible)
  Note: pre-empt getting a password/passphrase entry prompt by using keychain and a Cygwin shell

The XLaunch wizard

Remote login using XDMCP is also provided as well as a host finder and chooser via the -find command and XPing button...

Also use XLaunch to just simply start the X server and then run several X clients later by hand, or from Xmingrc menu entries.

Example .xlaunch configuration files for a remote xterm via PuTTY, a remote login via XDMCP and a remote xcalc via SSH.
Using the wizard to get a remote xcalc via PuTTY in -multiwindow mode...

You can select the windowing mode, the way sessions are started and save the configuration for later reuse. An XLaunch configuration file can be just clicked to rerun saved settings without having to go through the wizard pages. Also automatic validation of configuration files against the XLaunch XML Schema Definition is selectable when starting the wizard. Additionally, automatic display-number (i.e. server) allocation is provided for the first twenty instances.

XLaunch Help pages...
Display settings    Session type    Start program    XDMCP settings    Additional parameters    Finish configuration

International versions of XLaunch

Xmingrc and the X icon menu

Any program (local Microsoft Windows, local or remote X client) can be run from an Xmingrc menu item.

Xmingrc is a structured text file so to avoid errors, try the installed example_Xmingrc file, study my example and read the Xmingrc Manual.

Tools and clients

glxgears and glxinfo are supplied separately along with many other GLX and OpenGL test clients for Windows.

Examples, from Command Prompt

>set DISPLAY=localhost:0
>set LANG=en_gb
>xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr -fg white -bg black -solid SteelBlue
>setxkbmap de -model pc105

>xmonui | xmond             Xmonui graphics front-end piped to an xmond console providing trace,
                            for display 1 clients, while a server is running display 0.
>xclock -display :1
>xcalc -display :1          Monitoring two clients started from separate Command Prompt windows...

These Windows X clients are not the complete X.Org set. Since MinGW does not provide a POSIX API some clients just can't compile (e.g. xterm), also a few need client-side fonts or are useless on Windows. Their absence is not really significant, and most users don't need to install 'Tools and clients' anyway. Using PuTTY with Xming is however highly recommended as it provides SSH for Win32, xterm emulation and plink is especially useful...

PuTTY Link for Xming SSH client

The Xming plink SSH client is made with MinGW from patched PuTTY code. The modifications substitute Windows prompts for most console ones, which are helpful when used with XLaunch or Xming (both run console free and so console messages are hidden). An original (i.e. PuTTY project supplied) plink works just fine with XLaunch/Xming when no interactive input is required or errors encountered.

Debug XLaunch via plink with this XLaunch file (i.e. a test is triggered by the tags ClientStart="PuTTY" + Program="testplink") and get help by just clicking the plink.exe file. Note: plink is built as a console application, as it runs from the command line and accepts input from stdin.

The Run Utility

//Konsole.js - alternative to the Run Utility example provided above
//JavaScript to display a remote konsole without a local Command Prompt
var wshell = new ActiveXObject('WScript.Shell');
wshell.Run('"C:\\Program Files\\Xming\\plink.exe" -load colin konsole --ls',0);

Donations

I greatly appreciate contributions towards improving Xming's development and hosting resources. Plus, if you found Xming useful, a little thanks gives me the motivation to make it even better.

Xming Website Builds include...

• Many Enhancements, Changes and Bugfixes not in the Public Domain Release.
• The latest Website Releases and regularly updated Development Snapshots.
• Modular executables and libraries upstream from X11R7.5 plus latest keyboard and locale databases.
• Extra Windows X clients including GLX demonstrators and Xmon.
• OpenGL enabled rendering via latest Mesa GL (libGL, in the 7.5 series).
• Mesa libraries that are drop-in compatible with Microsoft's OpenGL (opengl32 and glu32, in the 7.4 series).
• The XPing XDMCP host chooser integrated into XLaunch also with quick and simple activation from Xming.

Support

Terms and Conditions

Table of Contents

1. Screenshots
2. Releases
   1. Links and release status
3. Installers for 32-bit Windows
   1. Xming
   2. Xming-fonts
   3. Xming-portablePuTTY
4. Using Xming
   1. What can you use Xming for?
   2. Manuals
   3. The XLaunch wizard
      1. International versions of XLaunch
   4. Xmingrc and the X icon menu
   5. Tools and clients
   6. PuTTY Link for Xming SSH client
   7. The Run Utility
5. Donations
6. Support
7. Terms and Conditions

Old News

Xming - PC X Server

Secure SSH & SSL Server
Secure, Compliant & Scalable File Transfer Solution. Free Eval!
www.IpswitchFT.com/SecureTransfer

I recently upgraded my Cygwin install and noticed that Cygwin has switched it’s X server XWin.exe from the XFree86 codebase to the Xorg codebase. Besides an updated logo, it also has some other side-effects.

The first one I noticed is that the xterm now has a menu turned on by default. If this annoys you (like it did me), you can turn it off by adding the following to your ~/.Xdefaults:

XTerm*toolBar: off

The next side-effect I haven’t yet solved. I use the XWin menu to define some links to the servers I look after at work. I use plink.exe (part of PuTTY) to launch an xterm on the remote host, displayed locally, and using pagent.exe to do the authentication. For example:

MENU DEV_SERVERS {
    "Content Server" exec "D:/Programs/PuTTY/plink.exe -ssh -X -C -load someserverdef /usr/openwin/bin/xterm -name greenbackground -ls"

This used to work, but now nothing happens.  Interestingly, the command will work if you execute it directly from a bash shell. If anyone has an idea, I’d be grateful for their help 

UPDATE: - 20081217 — Use Xming, maybe

I haven’t yet figured out ssh-agent. However one work-around that I tried earlier and added in the comments was no good: the X clients started in a terminal that is forked off this way don’t come through for some reason, to do with the way the X packets are tunnelled I think. So, I was motivated to try Xming.

Xming is being used quite successfully by my work colleagues who don’t have a whole Cygwin stack on their machines. It’s a lightweight X11 server for Windows, and it even uses Microsoft’s OpenGL apparently. I’ll have to try out some 3D clients from home soon to see what that gets me, but it could be good.

Anyway, for work, it seems to integrate very well with PuTTY. There’s even a stand-alone putty you can download that’s pre-integrated, though it seems to also require the Xming server.

I also found that it’ll serve my local X clients quite well. The most important of these is my emacs, of course. For that to work well, I had to download the extra fonts since emacs uses servers-side fonts. But it works and is indistinguishable from the X11 server that’s built into Cygwin.

I haven’t yet un-installed Cygwin’s X server: I fear it could also remove clients and libraries, and I don’t want the hastle just now of figuring that out.

A final note: It’s menu config file is Xmingrc (no dot), which lives in Window’s HOME %USERPROFILE%. Also, because it’s got no Cygwin dependency, you can’t launch local Cygwin X clients from this menu. At least, not without wrapping them in calls to Cygwin’s run.exe, e.g.

d:\cygwin\bin\run.exe -p /usr/X11R6/bin emacs -display 127.0.0.1:0.0 --debug-init

Recommended Links

• Xming - PC X Server

• Xming - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Installing Xming X11 on Windows

• freedesktop.org - Xming

• Windows to Unix With PuTTY and Xming

• Linux.com -- Use Linux over Windows with Xming

• [PDF]Using Xming

• [PDF]Installing Xming

• X Windows Forwarding