6 must-have home lab tools you should install on your Windows machine (2025)

Setting up a home lab may sound like a daunting task at first, but it can allow you to run and host all kinds of services on your own network that don't rely on external cloud providers. If you plan to set one up, though, you're going to need some tools to help you use and manage your home lab from your Windows PC.

Before you get started, here's a short list of software tools you'll want to install on your Windows PC to make things easier in your home lab.

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Must-haves for your home lab

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6 Rufus

Can't set up a home lab without a boot drive

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Of course, the first thing you'll need if you're setting up a home lab is a way to create a bootable drive that you can use to install the operating system on the machine you're going to be using. For that, one of the most popular choices is Rufus, a drive imager that can turn any flash drive into a bootable USB drive for whatever project you have.

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There are other options, of course, like Balena Etcher, but Rufus is a lightweight option that gets the job done, so you don't need to go much further.

5 PuTTY

A simple, but necessary tool

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If you're planning to run a home lab and want to be able to manage it remotely from your Windows PC, a pretty essential tool to have is an SSH client. Basically, this allows you to get remote access to the terminal in your home lab, so you can run the necessary commands without having to connect a display or peripherals to the home lab itself, which can be a hassle.

PuTTY is a pretty simple app that does exactly that. It's not the only SSH client out there, but it's one of the more well-known ones, and it's beloved by many. It's a fairly capable tool that supports plenty of configuration options so you can set it up however you prefer.

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PuTTY

4 FileZilla

Move files with ease

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Running commands on your home lab is one thing, but to set things up more easily, it may also be important to be able to easily move files to your home lab from your PC (or vice versa). FileZilla is a popular tool that allows you to set up an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) connection, so you can easily send files over the network from one device to another.

Similar to PuTTY, it's not that there aren't alternatives to FileZilla, but it's a longstanding name in the FTP game, and it's an easy one to recommend for anything involving file transfers within a local network.

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FileZilla

3 Tailscale

Access your home lab securely from anywhere

Having a home lab is all fine and dandy, and you can easily set it up to be accessed remotely within your network, but what about when you're not at home but still need to access the data in your home lab? Well, that's where a VPN service like Tailscale comes in.

Tailscale allows you to open up a specific communication port so that you can connect into your home lab from anywhere in the world by using the appropriate VPN configuration. All you need to do is set up Tailscale on your home lab and then install the client on your Windows laptop, then set up the connection to the home lab. After that, enable the connection whenever you need it and you'll be able to browse the files in your home lab whenever you want. It's easier than you might think, and it could come in handy in a time of need.

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Tailscale

2 SyncThing

Sync your files automatically

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Your home lab is going to be home to all kinds of files, and while many of them you may only need on your home lab itself, others you might want to download back to one of your PCs, or you may want to have a folder on your PC that automatically syncs to your home lab, such as a folder with media files you may want to stream over the network.

SyncThing is a program that's designed specifically for this. Its purpose is to synchronize folders across different PCs using a secure and private connection, so you don't have to rely on a third-party cloud solution. Again, you'll have to set it up on your home lab and then get the client for your Windows PC, but once you have those two pieces, it's fairly easy to use.

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Syncthing

1 Nextcloud

Your own private cloud

Finally, another great use case for a home lab is simply having your own private cloud storage server. There are a few solutions that can turn your home lab into a cloud drive for storing files and making them easily accessible to devices in your network, and Nextcloud is a popular choice among them.

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Just to reinforce it, Nextcloud is a service that you can set up on your home lab (or even something like a NAS) to turn it into something like a OneDrive account, except all the data is stored on your devices and never sent to a third party. Heck, Nextcloud can even include all kinds of tools like an Office suite so you can edit your files directly within Nextcloud and not have to download them to your PC and then reupload an updated version.

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Nextcloud

This is just the beginning

While all of these tools are what we'd consider essential if you're someone who enjoys playing around with a home lab, there are dozens and dozens of things you might want to end up trying with one once you start digging deeper. But if you're still relatively new to the idea of home labs, definitely check these out and see how much they can do for you.

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6 must-have home lab tools you should install on your Windows machine (2025)
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