Notes for Windows users
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Windows is not a UNIX or UNIX-like operating system, so there are extra steps to interfacing a Windows computer with our servers.
You have a few options for software to enable this kind of connection.
- The strongly preferred option is to install Ubuntu subsystem for Windows on Windows 10. Since this is Windows 10-only, we encourage students who want to use Windows to run Windows 10 rather than an earlier version. Here are the instructions:
- Click Start and search for Developer mode. Click the first option and enable developer mode.
- NOTE: It will ask you to restart your computer during this step, so be sure to save your work first. Run the Windows PowerShell in admin mode (right-click Start and select the option). Then copy the following and paste it in and hit Enter:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
Type 'Y' and press Enter when it asks you to restart. - Go to the Windows Store and install Ubuntu (just plain Ubuntu).
- MobaXterm and Putty are other options.
Some quirks of interfacing Windows with Linux:
- It's common for a Linux operating system to appear to mount the main Windows filesystem under /drives, usually /drives/c/.
- Within /drives/c, directories and filenames observe such Windows conventions as capitalizing (e.g.) "Users" and "Documents".
- If you're in a Linux environment, the Windows "\" becomes a Linux "/".