Answers to common questions.

mobaXterm is a free enhanced terminal for Windows that bundles SSH, X11 server, SFTP browser, RDP, XDMCP, and a network toolbox in a single portable app. It replaces separate tools like PuTTY, WinSCP, and Xming. Free for personal use; a Professional Edition adds unlimited sessions and enterprise features.

Windows 10 (64-bit) or Windows 11. About 200 MB of disk space for the base install, more if you add packages through the bundled MobApt package manager. No admin rights required for the portable edition.

The installer registers file associations and sets up auto-update, which is what most people want. The portable build runs from any folder (including a USB stick), leaves no traces in the registry, and is the right choice for locked-down work environments.

New releases are sometimes flagged until our code-signing reputation propagates. Every release is digitally signed; you can verify the signature from the file's Properties → Digital Signatures tab. If you're still unsure, contact support.

Install over the top — your sessions, settings and saved passwords are preserved. The Professional Edition has an in-app updater that checks weekly; the Home Edition pulls updates on demand from the Downloads page.

Right-click in the session tree → New Session → pick SSH. Fill in host, port, user and (optionally) a private key. The session is saved to the tree under whichever folder you right-clicked. Double-click to connect.

Yes — OpenSSH (id_rsa, id_ed25519) and PuTTY (.ppk) formats are both supported. Point the session at the key file, or load it into the bundled SSH agent so multiple sessions share it.

Define the gateway as a saved session, then on the target session select it from the SSH gateway dropdown. The connection is tunnelled automatically. You can chain multiple gateways for nested bastion setups.

Tools → SSH Tunnels → New. Pick local, remote or dynamic (SOCKS) and fill in source / target. Tunnels can be tied to a session so they open and close with it, or they can run independently.

No — an X11 server is built in and starts automatically with every SSH session that has X11 forwarding enabled. There's nothing to configure on the Windows side.

Connect over SSH (X11 forwarding is on by default), then just run the GUI command, e.g. xclock, gedit, code. The window pops up on your Windows desktop as if it were a local app.

Yes — create an XDMCP session pointing at the remote desktop manager. The full Linux desktop runs in a tab, side by side with your SSH terminals.

RDP sessions live next to SSH and SFTP tabs in the same window. Save them in the tree like any other session and double-click to open. Common RDP options (resolution, redirect drives, full-screen) are in the session's settings panel.

It opens automatically in the side pane whenever you connect to an SSH host. You can also open SFTP as a standalone session against any host you have credentials for.

Yes — drag-and-drop works both ways. Drop a file from Explorer into the SFTP pane to upload, or drag a remote file out to your desktop to download. Transfers run in the background; the queue is visible from the status bar.

Right-click the file in the SFTP browser → Open with embedded editor. Edits are saved back to the host automatically. You can also use any external editor — the file is re-uploaded when you save.

Large files use chunked SFTP with resume on disconnect. For multi-gigabyte transfers you can switch to SCP or rsync — both are bundled and reachable from the same context menu.

Settings → Terminal → Theme. A handful of built-in themes ship with the app; you can also paste any 16-color scheme (Solarized, Gruvbox, Dracula) as JSON.

Macros → Start recording → type your keystrokes → Stop. Save under a name, then bind it to a keyboard shortcut or trigger it from the macro panel. Macros can also run on session-connect for setup commands.

Live colouring of log lines, code and config snippets while they stream through the terminal. Works on common formats (JSON, YAML, Apache/Nginx logs, Python tracebacks) and is extensible with custom patterns.

It lets teams ship a tailored build to their engineers: custom theme, custom logo, default sessions, gated features and pre-configured tools. Useful for support orgs that want everyone to start from the same workspace.

Home Edition is free for personal, non-commercial use. Professional adds a commercial license, the Customizer, unlimited saved sessions and priority support — it's a one-time purchase per user, not a subscription.

No — Home Edition is licensed for personal use only. If you connect to anything that's part of your job, you need a Professional license. The price covers a year of updates and the version you have keeps working forever.

Use the contact form with "Sales" selected, or email [email protected]. We offer volume discounts from 5 seats and can invoice annually or by PO.

Home Edition: the community forum and the FAQ. Professional: priority email support at [email protected] — we reply within one business day, usually faster.