XWindows systems for Microsoft Windows can be expensive, but a free alternative is available. Cygwin/X is a port of the X Window System to the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. Cygwin/X runs on all recent consumer and business versions of Windows; as of 2003-12-27 those versions are specifically Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.
From x.cygwin.com, download the setup.exe program and run. Use the default options, though once one gets to the "Select Local Package Directory, create and select an empty folder for use. By default it uses where the program is started and in some cases this is the desktop.
Once in the "Select Packages" area, locate the X11 category and expand it. Then locate the xterm package and select for installation(Note, selecting this package will automatically select all required X windows packages for you). Then locate the Net category and locate the openssh package and select for installation.
Once Cygwin is installed, there will be a Cygwin icon on the desktop, starting this will bring up a terminal, type startx to start the X server. This in turn brings up the xterminal. Using ssh -X username@hostname will log you into the server with x fowarding enabled. Now you can use graphical programs on linux/unix machines.