Comprehensive tools for modern infrastructure management
Advanced Capabilities
SaltStack for Windows-Compatible Automation General Overview Salt is not a lightweight tool. It was built for scale. Master–minion architecture, custom DSL for state descriptions, and fast remote execution — that’s what it does. You can run it with agents (called minions), or without them over SSH. On Windows, it works, though it’s not its natural environment.
It’s best used in large Linux-centric infrastructures, but if you’ve got Windows mixed in, Salt can still control it — either through th
WinAutomation: Old-School RPA That Still Runs General Overview WinAutomation isn’t new, and it’s not under active development anymore. But for what it was built to do — desktop task automation on Windows — it still works. No cloud. No orchestration. Just a thick client that runs bots locally and quietly.
It came from Softomotive, later absorbed by Microsoft, and then folded into Power Automate Desktop. But plenty of teams never migrated — mostly because the workflows kept doing their job, and n
Puppet Bolt: When You Need Automation Before Full Configuration Management General Overview Puppet Bolt is a task runner. It doesn’t care about agents, catalogs, or reports. It connects to machines over SSH or WinRM, executes a command or a script, and exits. No daemon, no persistent setup. If the environment is too early-stage or not under Puppet control yet — Bolt works there.
It was created as a stopgap. But in practice, it handles many of the use cases where admins just need something to ha
AutoIt for Windows Automation General Overview AutoIt is a small scripting language created to automate keystrokes, mouse movements, and window control under Windows. It’s not designed for complex development — its strength lies in building repeatable, input-driven workflows that operate against the GUI directly. Think install automation, UI regression test sequences, or basic task scripting in environments where command-line tooling is not viable.
It’s structured, strict, and behaves more pred
Macrium Reflect: Practical Imaging and Recovery for Windows Systems General Overview Macrium Reflect is one of those rare tools in Windows system administration that just quietly does its job — snapshot-based imaging, cloning, and recovery, without fuss. It’s not flashy, but it’s reliable, which is exactly what’s needed when backups are involved.
At its core, Reflect creates full images of partitions or disks at the block level. That includes boot sectors, metadata — everything. These snapshots
Bacula: Modular Backup Infrastructure for Complex Environments General Overview Bacula isn’t just a tool — it’s a modular framework designed to handle large-scale, policy-driven backup operations. It’s built for organizations that need centralized control over backup jobs across many machines, platforms, and storage types. The system is composed of multiple daemons — Director, Storage, File, and Catalog — each responsible for a specific part of the workflow. Together, they offer a highly configu
UrBackup: A Straightforward Backup System That Just Works General Overview UrBackup is the kind of tool you throw into a mixed setup when you don’t want to spend weeks configuring policies — but still need backups that actually work. It’s simple where it matters, supports both file and image-level backup, and doesn’t lock you into any commercial ecosystem. The server handles scheduling, storage, and restores, while the clients quietly do their job in the background — Windows or Linux, doesn’t re
Veeam Agent: Enterprise-Grade Backup for Windows and Linux Endpoints General Overview Veeam Agent bridges the gap between traditional server backup and modern endpoint protection. Initially designed as a tool for protecting physical Windows machines, it has since evolved into a flexible agent-based system capable of backing up workstations, laptops, and standalone servers — both Windows and Linux.
It runs independently or as part of a larger Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure. That means
Mailspring: Cross-Platform Mail That Doesn’t Feel Like a Relic General Overview Mailspring is one of those rare email clients that doesn’t try to do everything, but what it does — it does well. It’s modern, cross-platform, and works equally smoothly whether someone’s on Linux, macOS, or Windows. No Exchange lock-in, no bloat from groupware features that never get used.
It speaks IMAP and SMTP fluently, handles multiple accounts without hiccups, and presents a UI that feels, well, actually pleas
Tutanota: Privacy-First Email That Stays Local General Overview Tutanota isn’t trying to be a universal replacement for Outlook or Gmail. It’s a mail service — and client — built around one specific priority: privacy. Not the checkbox kind, but full-stack encryption, minimal metadata, and zero third-party tracking. For teams and individuals who care about data locality, legal jurisdiction, and not being watched, Tutanota is one of the very few serious options.
Unlike most webmail platforms that
Piler: Mail Archiving Without the Overhead General Overview Piler is what many sysadmins turn to when email archiving becomes a requirement — either because of policy, compliance, or plain old “we need to keep everything.” It doesn’t pretend to be enterprise-grade software with dashboards full of bells and whistles. What it does is simple: capture mail, store it, and make it searchable. That’s it — and for a lot of environments, that’s more than enough.
It’s open-source, has no license tricks,
Posteo: Encrypted Email That Plays Well with Standards General Overview Posteo is a privacy-focused email service based in Germany that doesn’t try to reinvent email — it just makes it safer. It uses existing standards like IMAP, SMTP, and WebDAV, so users can stick with familiar clients like Thunderbird, Outlook, or mobile mail apps. What sets it apart isn’t features, but policies: zero tracking, no ads, and full encryption at rest.
Posteo doesn’t require personal information to register. Paym
MobaXterm: SSH, X11, and Remote Access in One Portable Package General Overview MobaXterm is one of those tools that doesn’t advertise itself loudly, but ends up on nearly every Windows admin’s flash drive. It’s a portable SSH client, X11 server, SCP/SFTP tool, remote desktop frontend, and terminal emulator — all packed into a single executable.
For Windows users who regularly work with Linux servers, network equipment, or remote Unix boxes, MobaXterm provides the kind of frictionless workflow
SSHFS-Win: A Minimalist Way to Mount Linux Over SSH in Windows General Overview There are moments when dragging files over SCP or opening WinSCP tabs just feels unnecessary. That’s where SSHFS-Win fits in. It lets you mount a remote Linux directory straight into Windows Explorer — no daemons, no server-side tweaks, just one SSH port and a local drive letter.
This tool doesn’t come with bells or dashboards. It builds on WinFsp, pulls in classic SSHFS under the hood, and does exactly what it prom
Rclone: CLI-Driven Sync and Remote Storage for Admins Who Know What They’re Doing General Overview Rclone is not a tool for the average user. It’s for those who know their endpoints, understand remote backends, and aren’t afraid of a terminal. In return, it offers a huge degree of control — syncing, mounting, copying, and encrypting data across more than 40 different storage providers.
Originally positioned as a “rsync for cloud storage,” Rclone has become a backbone utility for people managing
Bitvise SSH Client: A Power Tool for Secure Remote Access on Windows General Overview Bitvise SSH Client isn’t flashy. It doesn’t try to bundle every protocol or be a jack-of-all-trades. What it does is SSH — clean, fast, reliable, and surprisingly configurable. If you’ve ever struggled with tunnels in PuTTY or tried to automate sessions without scripting glue, Bitvise might be the tool you didn’t realize you needed.
Built from the ground up for Windows, it includes everything needed to connect
LibreNMS: Open-Source Network Monitoring That Actually Understands Devices General Overview LibreNMS is what many admins switch to when they’re tired of SNMP tools that either overwhelm or underdeliver. It’s a fork of Observium, but with a much stronger open community and fewer limitations. If you’re managing switches, routers, firewalls, or mixed vendor gear, this system picks up a lot without asking for custom MIBs or plugins every time.
It does autodiscovery. It draws graphs. It sends alerts
VictoriaMetrics: High-Throughput Time Series Engine That Doesn’t Collapse at Scale General Overview VictoriaMetrics is a time series database designed for one thing — storing and querying a massive amount of metrics, fast. It doesn’t try to do alerting, dashboards, or orchestration. You give it metrics, and it keeps them compressed, indexed, and ready to query. That’s the deal.
Originally created as a high-performance backend for Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics now works in standalone setups, multi
SolarWinds Log Analyzer: Quick Visibility into Logs, Without Building a Stack General Overview SolarWinds Log Analyzer is designed for teams that need to make sense of logs fast — but don’t want to stand up a full ELK stack or maintain their own collectors. It’s not a general-purpose log aggregator for everything under the sun. Instead, it fits into the SolarWinds ecosystem and provides real-time log search, basic correlation, and alerting in a Windows-friendly interface.
It’s most useful when
Checkmk: A Monitoring System That Sticks to the Job General Overview Checkmk isn’t a dashboard toy or cloud demo. It’s monitoring built for the real world — actual production networks, servers with history, things that break when no one’s watching.
At its core, Checkmk came out of the Nagios world. But over the years it’s grown far beyond that. What you get now is a solid agent-based system that keeps things lean: fast state checks, low CPU impact, predictable I/O. It scales — hundreds of hosts
Fing: Quick Network Scanning for When You Don’t Have Time to Explain General Overview Fing started as a mobile network scanner — something light, quick, and to the point. Over time, it evolved into a multi-platform toolkit for discovering devices, identifying rogue endpoints, and answering one of the most annoying IT questions: “What’s on this network, and why is it here?”
It’s not a replacement for Nmap or enterprise-level discovery engines, but it doesn’t try to be. Instead, Fing is for those
PRTG: Sensor-by-Sensor Monitoring That Just Gets the Basics Right General Overview PRTG isn’t trying to be clever. It doesn’t run AI anomaly detectors or feed logs into neural graphs. Instead, it focuses on watching the things that actually break: disks filling up, switches not responding, response times creeping up. And it does that with a model that’s been oddly consistent — one sensor, one thing to monitor.
The whole structure revolves around sensors. Want to track ping latency? That’s a sen
LANState: Visual Network Map with Built-In Tools for Real-Time Admin Tasks General Overview LANState is a network mapping and monitoring tool designed to give admins a live, interactive view of what’s happening on their LAN. Its strength isn’t in handling complex WANs or integrating with cloud APIs — it’s in fast, local visibility with actionable context.
The core idea is simple: scan the network, build a live topology map, and let the admin interact with nodes directly. Need to ping something?
NetworkMiner: Passive Network Sniffer for Forensics and Asset Fingerprinting General Overview NetworkMiner is a passive network traffic analyzer focused on extraction — not traffic shaping, blocking, or active probing. It listens, captures, and dissects packets without generating any. That makes it particularly useful in forensic analysis, threat hunting, and asset fingerprinting where stealth and data preservation matter more than speed or volume.
Unlike tools designed for intrusion detection
LogMeIn: Remote Access with Enterprise-Grade Convenience (at a Cost) General Overview LogMeIn isn’t trying to be subtle — it’s a remote access service that aims squarely at enterprise users who don’t want to deal with port forwarding, firewall rules, or VPN headaches. It’s commercial, polished, and designed to work across firewalls, proxies, and NAT without asking much from the admin.
It runs entirely through a cloud broker model: the remote machine runs a background agent, and the controlling
NoMachine: When You Need Remote Access That Feels Local General Overview There are plenty of remote desktop tools out there. Some are built into the OS, some run in the browser, and some promise “zero setup.” But NoMachine stands out for one simple reason — it actually feels fast. Not just usable — fast. The mouse doesn’t float behind your hand, text doesn’t smear when you scroll, and fullscreen video doesn’t choke.
This isn’t the kind of tool you throw on a Raspberry Pi just to check logs. It’
Remmina: A Remote Desktop Client That Just Works on Linux General Overview There’s nothing flashy about Remmina — and that’s a good thing. It’s made for people who manage systems, not for those looking to decorate dashboards. Built for Linux, Remmina is the kind of tool sysadmins keep open all day. Need to jump into a Windows server? Done. SSH into a headless box across town? That’s two clicks. Handle a VNC session with an old industrial controller? Still works.
What sets Remmina apart isn’t ju
TightProjector: Real-Time Screen Broadcasting over LAN Without Extra Hardware General Overview TightProjector is built for one specific task: broadcasting a Windows screen to multiple viewers over a local network, in real time, without needing extra AV equipment. It’s not a remote desktop tool. It’s not a streaming platform. It’s more like a screen multicast engine — focused, lightweight, and LAN-native.
The typical use case? Classrooms, trainings, or internal meetings where one machine needs t
ZoneAlarm Free Firewall: Local Network Control Without Complexity General Overview ZoneAlarm Free Firewall has been around for years — long enough to be called a classic. It’s not flashy, and it doesn’t try to be an all-in-one security suite. What it offers instead is straightforward: a system-level firewall for Windows, with a GUI simple enough for non-admins but configurable enough for those who want to know what’s talking to what.
It works by intercepting outbound and inbound traffic and pro
ClamWin: Lightweight, Open-Source Antivirus for Windows Power Users General Overview ClamWin is a bare-bones antivirus scanner for Windows, built around the open-source ClamAV engine. There’s no real-time protection, no fancy dashboards, no background monitoring. It does one thing: scans files or directories for known threats using an up-to-date signature database.
This tool is mostly used by advanced users who either want a secondary scanner to run on-demand or need something minimal for low-r
Sophos Home: When You Need Something Stronger Than Consumer Antivirus General Overview Sophos Home isn’t built for tinkerers. It’s meant for people who want a serious security engine on their personal machines — something closer to what big companies run on their endpoints, but without the mess of policy servers and group configs.
It uses the same backend engine as Sophos’ enterprise tools. You install a small agent on the machine, register it, and from that point, all settings are managed onli
Bitdefender Free: Set-It-and-Forget-It Antivirus, If That’s What You Want General Overview Bitdefender Free is one of those tools you install, let run in the background, and barely think about again — and that’s the point. It’s designed for users who don’t want to fiddle with settings, but still need dependable antivirus protection that gets daily updates and doesn’t nag them with popups.
Under the hood, it uses the same detection engine as the commercial Bitdefender products — same virus signa
Virtuozzo: Container-Based Virtualization with Enterprise Roots General Overview Virtuozzo is a commercial platform that delivers container-based and virtual machine workloads through a single hypervisor. It originated as a fork of OpenVZ and was one of the first technologies to offer operating system–level virtualization for Linux — long before Docker or LXC became mainstream.
Today, Virtuozzo has evolved into a hybrid solution that combines KVM-based virtualization with its own container engi
Xen Project: A Hypervisor That Prioritizes Isolation Over Convenience General Overview Xen Project is one of those tools that’s been around long enough to feel both battle-tested and a bit niche. It’s not built for plug-and-play setups or fancy web dashboards. It’s built for control. The kind of control that people running infrastructure really care about — especially when security, performance, or both are non-negotiable.
This is a type-1 hypervisor, meaning it runs directly on bare metal. No
Virtuozzo: Container-Based Virtualization with Enterprise Roots General Overview Virtuozzo is a commercial platform that delivers container-based and virtual machine workloads through a single hypervisor. It originated as a fork of OpenVZ and was one of the first technologies to offer operating system–level virtualization for Linux — long before Docker or LXC became mainstream.
Today, Virtuozzo has evolved into a hybrid solution that combines KVM-based virtualization with its own container engi
Parallels Desktop: macOS-Centric Virtualization with Native UX Priorities General Overview Parallels Desktop is a virtualization platform purpose-built for macOS. Unlike generic hypervisors, it doesn’t try to be cross-platform — instead, it focuses entirely on tight integration with Apple’s ecosystem. The goal is simple: run Windows, Linux, or other OSes on a Mac without forcing the user to leave the macOS environment.
Where tools like VirtualBox feel generic and disconnected, Parallels behaves