This is a tutorial on how to install and set up Cygwin, a Linux-like environment that runs on all modern 32 bit versions of Windows, except Windows CE. This includes Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.

What is Cygwin?
Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:

• A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.
• A collection of tools, which provide Linux look and feel.

Few benefits of using Cygwin:

• You will be able to use a graphical emacs (XEmacs) on your windows machine to edit files on a remote Linux machine (like phobos)
• You will have access to many standard UNIX utilities and be able to configure, build and run most of the available GNU software.

However:

• Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to rebuild your application from source if you want to get it running on Windows.
• Cygwin is not a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX ? functionality, like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality.

Tutorial Steps:

1. Download and Install Cygwin
2. Set up Cygwin Shortcuts
3. Download, Install and Run a Windows SSH (Secure Shell) Client; Setup SSH to tunnel X11 connections

Download and Install Cygwin

1. Go to http://cygwin.com
2. Click on "Install Cygwin now" box
   
   
   
3. Download and Run Setup.exe
   
4. Choose "Install from Internet"
   
   
   
   
   
5. It is recommended that you leave the Root Install Directory to "C:\cygwin".
   If you choose to install in other directory make sure there are NO spaces in the directory's name!
   e.g. if you install to "Program Files\cygwin" some Cygwin programs may crash
   
   
   
   
   
6. You can choose any site to download from. E.g. ftp.miror.ac.uk works well
   
   
   
   
   
7. The most important step is to choose the packages you want to install.
   If you click on "Default" next to a package category and wait for a couple of seconds
   it will change to "Install" which will install all packages from that category.
   If you click on the + sign it will expand the category and you can select exactly
   which package you want from that category
   
   Make sure you Install all X11 packages and perhaps you want to Install all Editors as well.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Grab a cup of coffee because the Installation will take some time (~1 hour)
   

Set up Cygwin Shortcuts

You might want to create a shortcut on your desktop or in your Start Menu->Programs->Cygwin to run Cygwin X11.
The path to the X11 should look like this C:\cygwin\usr\X11R6\bin\startxwin.bat

This will allow you to start X11 that in turn will allow you to launch various X11 Graphical Linux Apps like XEmacs under Windows!

Download, Install and Run a Windows SSH (Secure Shell) Client; Setup SSH to tunnel X11 connections

With Cygwin you can to connect to a linux server like phobos.ramapo.edu and
launch graphical linux applications like XEmacs

Here is how you can do this:

1. Download, Install and run a SSH client e.g. PUTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html)
   
2. In the Configuration panel, go to Connection->SSH->Tunnels and select "Enable X11 forwarding"
   Bear in mind that different SSH clients will have different configuration/settings menus; just look for X11 tunneling/forwarding
   
   
   
   
   Make sure you start Cygwin X11 by clicking on the shortcut described above
3. Finally, you can connect/ssh to phobos.ramapo.edu, login with your username and password
   and type at the prompt "xemacs test.txt" that will bring up XEmacs and
   you will be able to use a graphical editor to edit your text files on phobos from your Windows box!

Enjoy!