Gow

Gow or Gnu or Windows is a lightweight installer packed with about 130 handy open sources of UNIX applications compiled as native win32 binaries. If you like to experiment with Linux in a Windows environment, Cygwin should sound familiar. The purpose of Gow is to offer the same functionality as Cygwin but at a considerably smaller scale.

The first noticeable effect on your machine after installing Gow should be the Windows Explorer shell shortcut that makes opening the command line console (cmd.exe) easier. The shell is added to the context menu, so you can access it with just a click, from within any directory.

To make the binaries easier to reach, Gow installs them to Window PATH, a location that can be easily accessed through CMD.

In case you are new to compiling Linux/Unix within a Windows environment, and want to refresh your memory on commands, there is a solution to that. This list of commands for common operations is a great starting point for beginners or otherwise.

Removing binaries is also a walk in the park. Because all files are contained In a single folder in a standard location like the main drive, getting rid of no longer useful apps won't be an issue.

In short, Gow is a more compact alternative to Cygwin, meaning your system will use its resources more effectively when running Linux operations on Windows.