http://www.math.umn.edu/systems_guide/putty_xwin32.html

X Forwarding with Putty on Windows

Intro to X Forwarding

Unix machines have been able to run software on a remote machine and display the GUI locally for almost two decades. Linux and Mac OS X support X Forwarding with no extra software. Any terminal on Linux should do X Forwarding, Mac users need to run "Applications > Utilities > XTerm". In a command line terminal run "ssh -Y jdoe@compute.example.edu matlab" and you'll be running matlab on "compute.example.edu" but seeing it on your desktop.

Windows users need two pieces of software: an secure shell program (ssh) to establish the remote connection and an X Server to handle the local display.

Prerequisites

Putty for SSH

Xming for the XServer

Configuring Putty

Add Unix hostname

Switch Protocol to SSH

Type name of session in saved sessions

Click 'Save'

Expand the 'SSH' tab from the 'Category' list

Choose 'X11' from 'SSH' list

Check 'Enable X11 Forwarding'

Choose 'Session' from 'Category' list

Click 'Save'

Starting the X Server on Windows

Configuring Xming

Just run "All Programs > Xming Xming" and it should work if you've got PuTTY configured.

Connecting

Start Xming

Start Putty

Double click on the saved session you want

Enter username and password as requested

You should now be able to run X applications from the host

on your local desktop

William S. Bear

v1.1

Feb 27, 2006

Edited:

Aaron E. Fesperman

v1.2

July 30, 2012