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Cygwin/X - Features

Last updated: 2003-12-24 1735 EST (Harold L Hunt II)

  • Cost - Cygwin/X is free for use and the source code is freely available for modification.

  • Support - Free support is available in the Cygwin/X mailing list. The people answering questions are usually the same people that wrote the software, so they can often fix a problem if one is discovered.

  • Modifiability - Cygwin/X can be modified in-house by your own programmers, you can request features on the mailing list and see if someone is interested in doing it for you, or you can approach members of the Cygwin/X community to see if they will develop your feature in a timely manner for a fee (such an arrangement should be setup outside of the Cygwin/X project and the terms of such an arrangment would only be applicable to the third party requesting the feature and the developer(s) signing the contract).

  • Windows Versions - Supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

  • Color Depths - Supports all Windows 95 and later supported color depths.

  • PseduoColor - 8 bit PseudoColor (palletized color) support in Full Screen mode (-fullscreen) and when running Windows in an 8 bit color depth.

  • Remote Logins - Remote logins to XDM (X Display Manager) services are supported, allowing the entire session to be managed by a remote machine. Coupled with Full Screen mode, Cygwin/X can be used as an alternative to a KVM switch for *nix machines on your local network.

  • Remote Clients - Remote clients can be launched and displayed in your Cygwin/X session either via telnet or via X11 tunneling over ssh, using either Cygwin's openssh package, PuTTY, or any other ssh client.

  • DirectDraw Acceleration - Every mode except for the current Multi-Window mode supports acceleration via DirectDraw.

  • OpenGL Graphics - The Mesa 3D Graphics Library provides software-based OpenGL support.

  • Remote Access - You can use Cygwin's openssh package and its sshd daemon to allow X11 tunneling of applications from your Windows machine to other machines on your network. For example, you can launch emacs on your Windows machine and use it to view and edit files remotely from any other machine with an X Server.

  • Multi-Window Mode - Multi-Window mode allows each X Client to be opened in, and managed by, its own Windows window. This makes each X Client show up independently in the task bar. Additionally, the icon hint provided by the X Client is used for the Windows window icon.

  • Rootless Mode - Rootless mode makes the root window for the X Server be transparent, making all of the X Clients float over the other Windows windows. Rootless mode requires an external window manager, such as twm, openbox, fvwm2, WindowMaker, etc.

  • Fullscreen Mode - Fullscreen mode allows the entire display to be taken over by Cygwin/X, which works particularly well when logging into a remote XDM server.

  • No Decoration Mode - No Decoration mode creates a full-sized root window (not to be used with Fullscreen, Multi-Window, or Rootless modes) without any Windows window decorations (title bar, border, etc.).

  • Clipboard Integration - Clipboard integration between the X clipboard and the Windows clipboard. Supports text only. Works with Unicode and MBCS strings for non-U.S. locales.

  • Non-U.S. Keyboard Layouts - Many non-U.S. keyboard layouts are detected automatically, causing the appropriate keyboard map to be loaded. Keyboard layouts that are not automatically detected can be added to the list of automatically supported layouts easily upon request. XF86Config file support is also provided to allow manually specifying a keyboard layout.

  • AltGr Support - Cygwin/X properly handles the AltGr key used in many non-U.S. keyboard layouts and passes this key on to each particular X Client for further processing.

  • Start Menu Icons - Windows Start Menu icons are provided to launch installed X Clients (such as xterm, xeyes, emacs, etc.).

  • Tray Icon - A tray icon is provided to indicate that the server is running, to allow easy access to the Exit command, and to toggle visibility of the root window in Rootless mode.

  • Configurable Tray Icon Menu - Menu entries can be added to the configurable tray icon menu via a .XWinrc file in the user's home directory, or via a system.XWinrc file in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11.
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