HyperTerminal Alternatives for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012

In previous posts, I covered how to obtain HyperTerminal for Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 using an installation of Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP. Not everyone still has copies of these outdated operating systems and it might be time to move on to newer serial console software. In this post, I provide a few alternatives to using Hyperterminal.

PuTTY

PuTTY is most known as a good general use SSH/Telnet client, but a less commonly known fact is that PUTTY is capable of initiating serial connections.

TeraTerm

Tera Term is a good serial emulation program if you need more functionality than what PuTTY provides (specifically if you need to send/receive data via the Xmodem/Ymodem protocols).

Minicom

For linux dual booters and cygwin users, the most functional serial console tool that I have found is minicom. This is available as a package for most linux distributions and can also be built from source. There are potentially a lot of options for configuring minicom because it also provides modem dialing capabilities in addition to serial connectivity.