The OS has been confirmed working, being able to ping stuff on the Internet (such as google.com), and is likewise pingable from the host system.  Before continuing, let’s setup a tool that will allow us to interact with our VM from our Windows host.

Other tools are available, of course, but Notepad++, WinSCP, and PuTTY are all open source freeware (that is, you can see the source-code, and donate, but they’re otherwise free for non-commercial use).  The freeware bit means we’re encouraged to donate to  these projects… even though the PuTTY team claims they’ll mostly end up spending it “on beer or curry.”

Notepad++

The first tool is an advanced development text editor, and may be downloaded from here:  notepad-plus-plus.org/downloads

Install using defaults.

Setting up might require a few small changes, such as Recent Files History:  check the box next to Don’t check at launch time.  It defaults to enabling this, which means it’ll open every file you leave open when closing the application.

Another potentially annoying option is Backup.  Uncheck the box next to Remember current session for next launch.  This option also tends to start the application up with previous session data.

For Search Engine, it might be best to use DuckDuckGo, which doesn’t track (or remember) sessions either.

The only other thing that might be helpful is the default New Document Format.  The default is Windows (CR LF).  If most of the use of NP+ is going to be with a Linux VM, it might be easier to set this to Unix (LF).  If not sure, leave it.  There is an on-the-fly configuration setting at the bottom of the text editor that’ll show which format it’s using.  Right-click that and choose the one you want, then save the file so it’ll overwrite the target.  The need for this could should up if creating a script file on a Linux VM, since that’ll need to be using Unix (LF), and could cause strange error messages if using Windows (CR LF).

BTW, CR means carriage-return, and LF means line-feed.  Windows uses both CR and LF at the end of text lines, whereas, Unix (Linux) uses just CR.

PuTTY

The next tool is PuTTY, which may be downloaded from here.  If unsure of which version to choose (most Windows clients are x64 and can use the MSI version), use the Microsoft Store to search for PuTTY, or use their link that’s included on the aforementioned page.

PuTTY may be installed with defaults, and there’s no extra setup required.  The main reason for this application is to support live console sessions while in WinSCP (up next).  WinSCP’s going to be setup to interact with PuTTY on our behalf.

WinSCP

Finally, this application’s going to provide a user-interface that let’s us move files between our host and the VM.  It’ll be setup to use Notepad++ to edit files, and will let us open up console sessions on the VM itself using PuTTY.

Download it from here:  winscp.net/eng/download.  This site has a bit of advertising to sift through, so, after landing at the download page, scroll down until a large green button appears for Download WinSCP.  It’s also available through the Microsoft Store.

After installing with defaults, the initial run will pop up a Login window, with New Site active (click it if it’s not).  For our VM, keep the File protocol set to SFTP.  Set the Host name to the IP address (found in the previous section).  The User name can be root, and the password is whatever was set in the previous section.

When clicking Save, check the box next to Save password, before clicking OK.  This way, clicking that site will automatically provide the user/password information.

The first time connecting to the VM will cause WinSCP to pop up a prompt about it not recognizing the site.  Click the option to let it add the host to its