Tools for System Administrators
Software
Command-line package manager for Windows. Install, upgrade and remove software unattended with choco, from the community repository or your own internal feed. Chocolatey CLI is free and open source (Apache 2.0).
Ansible is a free, open-source, agentless automation tool. Describe servers in YAML playbooks and Ansible applies them over SSH or WinRM: patching, software, services, scheduled tasks and config files across Windows and Linux fleets.
SikuliX automates desktop apps by recognising what is on screen and driving mouse and keyboard with Jython scripts. It is free (MIT) but discontinued: 2.0.5 (2021) is final, and the maintained continuation is the OculiX fork.
Microsoft’s RPA tool for Windows and the successor of WinAutomation. Build desktop flows that automate apps, files, Excel and web pages with 400+ actions and a recorder. Shareware (conditionally free): personal attended use comes with Windows 10/11; sharing and unattended runs need a paid plan.
Free edition of AOMEI’s Windows backup software. It makes system, disk, partition and file image backups, schedules incremental backups to USB or NAS, and restores from bootable rescue media. Free for non-commercial use; paid editions add clone, encryption and more.
Freeware file backup scheduler for Windows: full, incremental and differential backups to disks, shares, FTP and SFTP with Zip compression and AES encryption. Development has ended: Cobian Reflector 2.7.20 (July 2024) is the last update.
Free, open-source (GPL-2.0) Java file backup for Windows and Linux with incremental, differential and delta backups, ZIP compression and AES encryption. The original project stopped at 7.5 in 2015; a community fork continues on Windows.
Open source folder comparison and sync tool for Windows, macOS and Linux: two-way, mirror and update modes, versioning, SFTP/FTP targets and batch jobs with RealTimeSync. Free for private individuals; organisations need the paid Business Edition.
MailEnable is a mail server for Windows Server with SMTP, POP3, IMAP, webmail, list server and antispam. The Standard Edition is free with unlimited users and domains; paid editions add ActiveSync, collaboration and clustering.
Mailu is a free, open-source (MIT) mail server delivered as Docker containers: SMTP, IMAP, webmail, web admin, antispam, optional antivirus, DKIM, DMARC and MTA-STS, configured through one env file on a Linux server.
Syncthing is a free, open-source tool that keeps folders in sync directly between your devices over encrypted connections, with no cloud service or account. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD with a local web interface, and in Docker.
Piler (mailpiler) is a self-hosted email archive: your mail server sends it a copy of every message, and it deduplicates, indexes and retains them with full-text search, legal hold and audit logs. Open Source Edition is free (GPL-3.0); Linux or Docker.
WinSCP is a free, open-source file transfer client for Windows supporting SFTP, SCP, FTP/FTPS, WebDAV and S3. It combines a two-panel file manager with scripting and a .NET assembly for automated, scheduled transfers.
Multi Commander is a free, tabbed dual-panel file manager for Windows. It browses FTP, SFTP, archives and the Registry, compares folders, batch-renames and finds locked files. Installer and portable, 32- and 64-bit.
Free dual-pane file manager for Windows (Vista to 11) with a built-in viewer and media player, 7-Zip based archive handling, FTP/FTPS, folder comparison and sync, a duplicate finder and VirusTotal hash checks. Available as setup and portable editions.
Free, open source (GPL) file transfer and cloud storage browser for macOS and Windows. Connects to SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, Amazon S3, Azure, Google Cloud Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive; the duck CLI adds scripting on Linux too.
LogFusion is a real-time log viewer for Windows: it tails text and IIS logs, reads local and remote Event Logs and captures debug output. Shareware (conditionally free): a limited free mode, with filtering, tabs and highlighting in Pro.
Nagwin marries the power of Nagios with Windows ease of use, eliminating the need for a separate Linux VM. With quick setup, native Windows checks and a familiar web UI, it brings enterprise-grade monitoring to your Windows servers—minus the usual headaches.
Prometheus is the open-source monitoring and alerting system from the CNCF: it scrapes metrics from exporters, stores them in a time-series database and alerts via Alertmanager. Pair it with Grafana for dashboards. Free, Apache-2.0.
Free, open source (AGPL-3.0) log aggregation system from Grafana Labs. Indexes only labels, stores compressed logs on disk or object storage and is queried with LogQL in Grafana. Runs on Linux, Docker and Kubernetes; logs are shipped with Grafana Alloy.
NetCrunch Tools (NetCrunch Admin Toolset) is a free set of 12 network tools from AdRem Software: ping, service, port and SNMP scanners, traceroute, DNS audit, Wake on LAN and more. Windows 10 x64 or later.
Free Windows network scanner from Famatech. It finds every device on your LAN, shows names, MAC addresses and shared folders, and lets you connect by RDP or Radmin, send Wake-on-LAN or shut PCs down remotely. It can run without installation.
Network mapping and host monitoring tool for Windows: scans your LAN, draws a map with SNMP-based switch links and runs agentless ping, TCP, HTTP, SNMP and WMI checks with alerts. Shareware (conditionally free): free mode for up to 25 devices.
Fast open-source IP and port scanner for Windows, macOS and Linux. It pings ranges, resolves hostnames, reads MAC addresses, checks ports and exports results to CSV, TXT or XML. Free under GPL-2.0.
TigerVNC is a free, open-source (GPL-2.0) VNC implementation: Xvnc gives Linux users their own virtual desktops, and the fast vncviewer runs on Windows, macOS and Linux with TLS encryption and SSH tunnelling support.
NoMachine is fast remote desktop software for Windows, macOS, Linux and Raspberry Pi, based on the NX protocol. Since version 10 it is shareware (conditionally free): the free edition was retired, the client-only Enterprise Client stays free.
TightVNC is a free (GPL-2.0) VNC server and viewer for Windows, also free for commercial use. The server runs as a service, deploys silently via MSI and supports file transfer. Traffic is not encrypted, so use it on a LAN, VPN or SSH tunnel.
mRemoteNG is a free, open-source tabbed remote connections manager for Windows. It keeps RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, HTTP and PowerShell sessions in one tree with folders, inherited settings and saved credentials, and opens each in a tab.
ClamAV is Cisco Talos’ free, open-source antivirus engine. It scans files, uploads and email on Linux, Windows and macOS from the command line or through the clamd daemon, with signature updates via freshclam. It is a server scanner, not a desktop suite.
Network monitor and firewall for Windows 10 and 11 (x64, ARM64): live traffic graph, per-app data usage and alerts on new connections. Shareware (conditionally free): the free tier keeps 24 hours of history; firewall control needs Premium.
OSArmor is a Windows hardening layer from NoVirusThanks that blocks suspicious process behaviour: Office apps spawning PowerShell, script-host abuse, shadow-copy deletion and USB malware. It runs alongside your antivirus. Shareware (conditionally free).
Maltrail is a free, open-source (MIT) malicious traffic detection system. A Rust sensor matches traffic against public blacklists and heuristics and reports hits to a web dashboard. Runs on Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows 10+.
Proxmox VE is a free, open-source bare-metal virtualization platform based on Debian. It runs KVM virtual machines and LXC containers, with clustering, high availability, ZFS/Ceph storage and scheduled backups, all managed from a web interface.
Desktop hypervisor for Windows and Linux PCs. It runs many VMs side by side, with snapshots, clones, virtual networks, vTPM and the vmrun CLI. Free for commercial, educational and personal use since November 2024, with no licence key. It replaces the discontinued Workstation Player.
QEMU is the open-source machine emulator and virtualizer behind KVM, Proxmox VE and libvirt. It runs VMs at near-native speed with KVM, HVF or WHPX, emulates other CPU architectures, and converts disk images with qemu-img. Free, GPL-2.0.
Vagrant is HashiCorp’s free command-line tool for creating reproducible, disposable virtual machines from a single Vagrantfile. It drives VirtualBox, Hyper-V, Docker or VMware and provisions VMs with shell scripts or Ansible.