I recently needed to setup a new Windows jump server¹ for accessing and managing servers and clients in a remote environment. As I started to configure applications on the host I quickly realized I have a default set of applications I use for management tasks. While this list driven somewhat by need and somewhat by personal preference these are the applications I use (alphabetical order for no reason):
7-Zip
Compression tool of choice, mostly for the ability to expand just about any file type.
Bitvise SSH Client
https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client
A robust and personal preference for SSH connections on Windows.
Alternate: PuTTY – http://www.putty.org/
FileZilla
https://filezilla-project.org/
FTP/SFTP client of choice, seems to be the enterprise standard these days.
Remote Desktop Connection Manager (Microsoft)
https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=44989
If managing multiple Windows Server/Client machines Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection Manager is a must have.
TextPad
Window’s Notepad just doesn’t cut it for working with large (multi-GB) log files.
TightVNC
VNC clients are a dime a dozen, this one boils down to compatibility and personal preference.
VcXsrv
https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
X Window System Server for Windows used for viewing certain Unix/Linux applications exported via SSH.
Alternate: Xming – https://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/
Vim
http://www.vim.org/download.php#pc
Command line text editor for Windows, keeps things consistent across managing Unix/Linux and at least this one Windows host.
VMware vSphere Client
Used for legacy and stand-alone ESXi servers. Slowly dying in favor of the vSphere Web GUI.
- A jump server or jump host or jumpbox is a (special-purpose) computer on a network typically used to manage devices in a separate security zone. The most common example is managing a host in a DMZ from trusted networks or computers. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jump_server