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New major version of MobaXterm (9.0)

New major version of MobaXterm (9.0)

Posted on by MobaXterm dev team
Tags:    #MobaXterm #News #Release
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Hi everyone!


We just released a new major release of MobaXterm (version 9.0)!


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.


This new version comes with many improvements and new features:

• The new “Ubuntu Bash on Windows” (a.k.a. Windows Subsystem for Linux or WSL) feature has been integrated into MobaXterm. This allows you to use the new Ubuntu Bash feature (introduced in latest Windows 10 builds) directly into MobaXterm, and to take advantage of MobaXterm convenient interface (tabs, advanced terminal emulator, syntax highlighting, multi-execution, …). By starting Ubuntu Bash from the “Shell” session type, you can even start a graphical application in Ubuntu Bash and it will be displayed thanks to MobaXterm embedded X server! For those who do not have the latest Windows 10 with WSL, remember that you can still have Bash on Windows (and much more) by opening a local terminal in MobaXterm.



• You can now track terminal activity. When you are working in a tab, if some activity is detected in another tab, the icon will blink, and the tab title will turn to blue color in order to inform you that the terminal content has been modified.


• A new experimental feature allows you to open any external file or program directly into MobaXterm tabbed interface. Just go to MobaXterm sessions manager, choose “File” session type and check the following setting: “Try to open this file/folder/url into a MobaXterm tab”. MobaXterm will launch the file, folder or url you chose into a new tab.



• You can now specify a macro in Ssh, Telnet, Rsh, Mosh, Serial (COM) and Shell sessions. This allows you to automatically execute a macro when session starts. By the way, the macros have been greatly improved: you can now edit them in a more convenient way and you can also specify pattern conditions (wait for a pattern before following up with macro execution).


• Another new interesting feature is the “browser emulation”. You can now emulate older Internet Explorer versions, from IE7 to IE11. Of course, you can only emulate versions of IE that are older than yours. This is very useful in order to display a website or url with a specific version of Internet Explorer.


• The new syntax coloration feature has been greatly improved with speed improvements and better keywords detection.



Full changelog:

  • New feature: added support for the new "Ubuntu Bash on Windows" feature (introduced in latest Windows 10 builds). In "Shell" sessions, you can choose between native Bash, Cmd, Powershell and "Ubuntu bash"
  • New feature: added terminal activity tracking: icon of terminal tab is displayed with a blue dot if some activity is detected
  • New feature: added terminal modification tracking: title of inactive terminal tab is displayed using blue color if something occured in the terminal
  • New feature: added terminal disconnection tracking: title of inactive terminal tab is displayed using red color if session has been disconnected
  • New feature: added a new experimental setting in the "File" session type, which allows you to open any file/folder directly into MobaXterm tabbed interface
  • New feature: you can now specify a start up macro for SSH, Telnet, RSH, Mosh, Serial (COM) and Shell sessions
  • New feature: you can now specify pattern conditions in macros (wait for a pattern before following up with macro execution)
  • New feature: added new browser session setting which allows to emulate older IE versions, from IE7 to IE11
  • Improvement: you can now specify the COM port to use for serial connection at session start (useful if you use a USB/COM adapter which can be attached to random COM ports numbers)
  • Improvement: enhanced macro editor: you can now type some text directly into the macro editor instead of editing each keystroke
  • Improvement: you can now use the following variables in macros: $MobaDisplay and $MobaIP
  • Improvement: terminal syntax highlighting feature (a.k.a. keyword coloration) is no more tagged as "experimental"
  • Improvement: enhanced terminal speed when syntax highlighting is enabled: the terminal no longer suffer from slower speed when syntax highlighting is active
  • Improvement: added a new "Byobu" terminal type in sessions which is compatible with Byobu escape sequences (Ctrl+Fn and Shift+Fn keys)
  • Improvement: added "R" programming language in MobaTextEditor syntax list
  • Improvement: when you save terminal output to file, the file format you choose (RTF or TXT) is now saved
  • Improvement: added /dev/shm directory structure (especially useful in order to use Ansible on Windows with MobaXterm)
  • Improvement: added a new "Duplicate macro" feature for existing macros
  • Improvement: enhanced saving speed when dealing with huge terminal output
  • Improvement: added a new "Hide toolbar" button in detached windows
  • Improvement: added a refresh feature for local folders for FTP/SFTP sessions, by pressing "F5" key
  • Improvement: implemented 2 undocumented settings "AllowBlinking" and "CtrlAltIsAltGr"
  • Improvement: MobaXterm is now displayed on the proper taskbar with multiple monitors
  • Improvement: when saving huge terminal output, a prompt now allows you to choose whether to limit the number of lines to save
  • Improvement: added the iperf3 tool in the CygUtils plugin
  • Improvement: updated the "Default (OK/warning/error keywords)" terminal syntax highlighting with new patterns detection
  • Improvement: updated the "Unix shell script" terminal syntax highlighting with new patterns detection
  • Improvement: added new manual INI setting "AllowLegacyAlgos" under the "SSH" section (set to "0" by default), which allows to activate legacy protocols and keys for SSH client
  • Improvement: improved Ctrl+C and arrows handling in Dos and PowerShell sessions
  • Improvement: added basic keywords coloration (Ok/warning/error) as default global setting
  • Bugfix: TFTP server (embedded TFTP daemon) can now handle folders structure in order to upload/upload files
  • Bugfix: corrected typo in syntax highlighting: the keyword "successful" is now properly detected
  • Bugfix: added Windows path environment variable to RDP sessions for proper Smartcards authentication
  • Bugfix: the "SSH-browser" label in MobaXterm global settings was not displayed entirely
  • Bugfix: commandline SSH client was missing support for GSSAPI authentication in previous version
  • Bugfix: the /registry symlink was incorrect on some Windows systems
  • Bugfix: terminal scrollback was erased when telnet or rlogin sessions were reconnected
  • Bugfix: fixed libraries incompatibilities with the "findutils" package downloaded using "apt-get"
  • Bugfix: a "reconnection message" was displayed on CMD or POWERSHELL sessions types, even if the setting was unchecked
  • Bugfix: "Quick search" menu was displayed in the wrong place when sidebar was docked to the right
  • Bugfix: with Pro Edition, the separation line was shown even if it was unchecked in global settings
  • Bugfix: corrected a freeze issue in MultiExec mode, when connecting several SSH sessions to the same host and using Keyboard-interactive authentication
  • Bugfix: removed an error message when starting a beta version with Compact mode enabled
  • Bugfix: removed an error message when starting a Powershell session with a command and no home folder specified
  • Bugfix: fixed file access rights issues in HOME folder


You can download this new release from MobaXterm website.

We wanted to say a big thanks to you all. We have received many emails containing very positive feedback concerning MobaXterm and this is very motivating for us!

We hope you will enjoy working with this new version of MobaXterm!