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Stata GUI on Windows (Xming + PuTTY)

The standard lab onboarding walkthrough for running the Stata GUI on Scribe from a Windows machine.

This uses X11 forwarding — a mechanism that runs Stata on Scribe but forwards its windows to your local Windows machine — via PuTTY (an SSH client) and Xming (an X server).

Before you start

  • The screenshots below show the host as Scribe.ucdavis.edu; the current host is Scribe.ssds.ucdavis.edu — use that.
  • Connect to the DSS VPN first (see Working on Scribe).

1. Install PuTTY and Xming

  • PuTTY — from the PuTTY download page, get the .msi installer that matches your machine (32- or 64-bit) and run it. Defaults are fine.
  • Xming — install from SourceForge.
  • Launch Xming. It minimizes to an icon in the system tray; just leave it running.

2. Configure PuTTY

Open PuTTY. You'll see the configuration window:

PuTTY configuration window

In Host Name (or IP address), type Scribe.ssds.ucdavis.edu (the screenshot shows the older Scribe.ucdavis.edu form):

PuTTY host name entered

In the Category panel on the left, scroll to SSH, expand it, and click X11:

PuTTY SSH X11 options

Check Enable X11 forwarding, and under Remote X11 authentication protocol select MIT-Magic-Cookie-1:

Enable X11 forwarding with MIT-Magic-Cookie-1

3. Save the session (optional)

Go back up to Session in the Category panel, type a name (e.g. Scribe) under Saved Sessions, and click Save. Next time, just load the saved session and everything is pre-filled.

Saving the PuTTY session

4. Connect and launch Stata

With Xming running and the DSS VPN connected, click Open. At the prompt, type your Scribe username and press Enter, then your password (keystrokes won't show):

PuTTY login prompt

Once you're at the command line, set your lab group permissions and launch the GUI:

go_sbac                # set lab group permissions (run each login)
xstata-mp              # or xstata-se, depending on the Stata edition you want

The Stata GUI opens on your desktop — that's it.

Use the GUI for exploration, not for writing code

The GUI is handy for poking at the data, but anything you want to keep belongs in a saved .do file run in batch. See Working on Scribe for the batch workflow and Editing Stata in VSCode for writing your code.