• PuTTY:  This is the preferred SSH client for Windows.  It is free, easy to use and well maintained for both security and bug issues.  (As with everything, it is only "maintained" if you regularly check for updated versions!)  Please note that most other SSH clients for Windows are NOT free for use on government computers or in the pursuit of lab business, though they might function just fine without payment.

• WinSCP:  This is a fine graphical SFTP and SCP client utility with some additional features built in.

• X servers (no, Exceed doesn't make the cut because of the high monetary cost):

  • Cygwin:  Please look at the separate Cygwin page for information on installing and configuring the Cygwin X server.

  • Xmanager:  I recommend that you use the Cygwin X server, but if you find something that it can't handle, then this is the recommended alternative.  It isn't free (but it does have fully functional time-limited evaluation license if you want to try it out.)  It is much cheaper than Exceed and seemingly just as capable, but without quite as much overhead.  I'm particularly interested in hearing about X Server alternatives, so let me know if you have a favorite!

• Alternatives to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Outlook Express:

   As the leading web browser and mail client, Microsoft's apps are the target of prolific and numerous viruses, trojans, malware and other nasties.  In addition to avoiding many of these, you may also like some of the features available in the alternatives (eg. tabbed browsing is a popular feature unavailable in IE (though it is coming soon in IE7)).  Several alternatives are in common use (three of them share much of the same code-base -- Mozilla, Netscape Navigator and Firefox).   This review might help sort you out the differences.  As with anything, your preference is yours to decide (and also, as with everything else here, feature and security updates are released quite often, so you should check for new versions regularly.):  They are listed here from highest recommendation to lowest:
  1. Firefox/Thunderbird:  Though frequently mentioned as a pair, Firefox and Thunderbird are stand-alone applications.  Firefox is a web browser, and Thunderbird is an email client.  "Stand alone" here means that these can be installed separately from each other.  You can configure them to work with alternative software as you wish (eg. use Firefox for surfing, but set Outlook as your default mail client).  Actually, you can generally mix and match pieces from all of these alternatives, but most of them start out with defaults tied to their suite companions.  Slight thumbs up to Firefox over the other alternatives because it has almost every feature found in the corresponding Mozilla suite, plus additional add-ons.  Vast numbers of independently produced add-ons and customizations are available as well.
  2. Mozilla Suite:  A suite that includes the big three:  a browser, email client and HTML editor.  This is a fine alternative, but this author gives the bigger thumbs up to its sibling, Firefox, listed above.  Furthermore, the Mozilla group has announced the end of the Mozilla suite development in order to consolidate on Firefox/Thunderbird development.
  3. Opera.  It is available in a free version with a "branding" bar that contains advertisements, or you can buy the product to remove this minor annoyance.  (Branding/non-branding examples.)
  4. Netscape:  The Netscape suite includes a browser (Navigator), email client (Mail), HTML editor (Composer) and other tidbits.  Of the three Mozilla-based browsers, this is probably the least used and has the most extraneous stuff thrown in, which is one of several reasons it gets last place in this list.   It is good enough to recommend, but just not quite as highly as the others.
  
  
• Java, WebStart, JRE, J2RE, JSDK, Microsoft VM and all that Jazz...: The author of this segment finds this to be very puzzling and sometimes frustrating stuff to understand, keep up with, and especially to try to explain clearly and succinctly.  Details to be filled in here, but for now some notes.  Microsoft has stopped development and distribution of the Microsoft Virtual Machine (with the exception of some security updates for existing installations, for a limited time).   You can get started installing the basics from the Sun Desktop Java site.   As of this writing, the current "standard" release is 1.4.2, the JRE of which (or the superset SDK) can be found at this Sun download site.

• OpenAFS, MIT Kerberos, Wake and Leash: Details to be filled in here!   For now, please take a look at the RCF's "AFS on Windows at the RCF" site.

• Google Toolbar : This is a very convenient interface to initiate Google searches, plus a decent pop-up blocker. Unfortunately, it is only available for Internet Explorer (though a Beta version for Firefox exists and some other browsers support similar features natively).

Other local pages for Recommended Windows Software: