Hi everyone!
We just released a new major version of MobaXterm (11.0)!
MobaXterm is your ultimate toolbox for remote computing: in a single Windows application, it provides loads of functions that are tailored for programmers, webmasters, IT administrators and pretty much all users who need to handle their remote jobs in a more simple fashion. MobaXterm provides all the important remote network tools (SSH, X11, RDP, VNC, FTP, MOSH, …) to Windows desktop, in a single portable exe file which works out of the box. MobaXterm provides a basic Unix-like environment for Windows which uses an advanced console and can even run WSL distribution on Windows with full X server support!
This release adds a new native integration of WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux, a.k.a. “Bash for Windows”): your WSL distribution runs with a full X server and can display graphical applications or entire desktops.
This release also adds a new 64-bit local terminal environment. This is still an experimental addition, because we are trying to support all the features that are currently available in the 32-bit terminal environment. For the moment, the only shell available is ZSH which is not fully compatible with the current BASH shell of the 32-bit environment. We are planning to add BASH shell soon. However, you can try the new features brought by ZSH. For instance, you can type “ls -<TAB>” to have an inline completion of commandline parameters, you can use “apt-get install n<TAB>” in order to complete any packages beginning with the “n” character, and much more!
There are many other improvements: colored tabs, enhanced startup speed, remote SSH-browser speed, remote monitoring bar, terminal, … The full changelog is below.
Demonstration of WSL integration in MobaXterm
Full changelog:
version 11.0:
- New feature: native integration of WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) into MobaXterm - run WSL into MobaXterm advanced terminal instead of Windows console and run graphical applications thanks to MobaXterm X server
- New feature: new experimental local terminal package "CygUtils64.plugin" comes with ZSH shell, 64-bit console utilities and improved apt-get packages manager - activate it from global settings, "terminal" tab
- New feature: added a new global setting in order to choose which local shell to use (Bash, ZSH (64-bits), Cmd, Powershell, or one of the Linux WSL distributions)
- Improvement: enhanced the Remote Monitoring bar to display information in red or orange when the values reach critical levels
- Improvement: improved SSH-browser performances, especially when remote folder contains many files/folders
- Improvement: improved sessions tree performances, especially when number of sessions is greater than 100
- Improvement: reworked the global settings window for easier settings identification
- Improvement: improved compatibility of "Follow terminal folder" feature with remote Unix/Linux environments
- Improvement: added a prompt dialog in order to assign right-click action (context menu or paste) the first time you right-click into the terminal
- Improvement: updated OpenSSH client to version 7.5 when the new local terminal package is selected
- Improvement: updated "top", "ps", "ldd", "kill", and other core commands when the new local terminal package is selected
- Improvement: you can now specify the color of each tab by right-clicking on the tab or by specifying a custom tab color for each session
- Improvement: improved MobaXterm startup speed by using lazy loading for resources which may be unused
- Improvement: prevent the remote monitoring bar from disappearing temporarily when switching between tabs
- Improvement: updated icons for files/folders in SSH-browser and (s)FTP sessions
- Improvement: updated tray icon to the new MobaXterm flat logo
- Improvement: after choosing Bash or Zsh terminal in global settings, if you do not have the CygUtils plugin on your computer, a popup window prompts you to download it
- Improvement: updated PuTTY-based SSH engine to the latest version
- Improvement: adapted default settings to Brocade switches on SSH sessions
- Improvement: updated terminal smart selection to better detect URLs and delimiters when using default settings
- Improvement: added 5 manual Ini settings under the "Misc" section in order to control smart selection behavior (ForcedLeftDelimChars, ForcedRightDelimChars, DisabledLeftDelimChars, DisabledRightDelimChars and SmartDelimsForUrls)
- Improvement: with default syntax, URLs are now underlined - remember that you can ctrl+click them to open in default browser
- Improvement: improved size of main executable by removing unused code and optimizing several subfunctions
- Improvement: decreased latency when navigating through tabs, especially for SSH sessions
- Improvement: tooltips in the Remote Monitoring bar are now displayed using fixed font if necessary
- Improvement: disk usage tooltip values are displayed in human-readable format
- Improvement: try to detect Nexus devices and to avoid starting SCP when connecting through SSH
- Improvement: improved SFTP / FTP / S3 sessions performances, especially when remote folder contains many files/folders
- Improvement: after terminal has been paused (Ctrl+S), any key will "unfreeze" it. Many users thought that terminal was frozen after accidentally hitting Ctrl+S
- Bugfix: after setting the graphical interface elements size from global settings, modifications are properly applied at first MobaXterm restart
- Bugfix: fixed detection of disk space in remote monitoring when "df" returns results split across multiple lines
- Bugfix: when hitting "R" to reconnect an SSH session, if the gateway had been disconnected, MobaXterm will try to reconnect it first
- Bugfix: fixed some checkboxes placements, elements sizes and placements for High-DPI monitors
- Bugfix: fixed syntax highlighting which was disabled when running systemctl commands
- Bugfix: fixed VNC connections issues through SSH gateway (jump host) when new VNC engine was selected
- Bugfix: fixed an issue with hidden sidebar when it was set to the right and monitor DPI was above 144 pixels per inch
- Bugfix: MobaXterm now handles properly pipes characters in sessions folders names
- Bugfix: MobaXterm now handles properly arobase characters in tunnels usernames
- Bugfix: MobaXterm now handles properly arobase characters in stored passwords usernames
- Bugfix: fixed some visual flickering effects which occurred on some buttons when mouse was over them
- Bugfix: the SSH-browser no longer follows the wrong terminal when the same SSH session is connected twice
- Bugfix: removed an unnecessary delay when waiting for the X server to start up
- Bugfix: passwords defined for VNC, telnet or FTP services were sometimes lost after restarting MobaXterm
- Bugfix: fixed some flickering effects which occurred into Home tab after MobaXterm startup
- Bugfix: upload of multiple files in SSH-browser no longer gets stuck when "SSH preserve files dates" setting is activated
- Bugfix: fixed remote edition of multiple files in SSH-browser when remote files had the same names
- Bugfix: aligned sessions tree to the left at startup
- Bugfix: fixed some issues with MobApt when downloading old packages
- Bugfix: disabled "Remote monitoring" feature for SSH connections to Cisco routers
- Bugfix: "MobaFoldersDiff" tool has been re-added, after fixing the startup issue
- Bugfix: added "VISUAL" environment variable in order to fix potential issues with "crontab" command
You can download this new release from MobaXterm website.
We wanted to say a big thanks to you all. We realize that many of you love working with MobaXterm and we are proud to receive many emails with such positive feedback. This is very motivating for us, thank you!
We hope you will enjoy working with this new version of MobaXterm!