Yes so the X display server is how most Linux (and Unix) systems handle graphical displays, a graphical application renders to the display server which outputs to a display driver/device.
XMing is an X server for Windows, so you can run a X graphical application and it'll render on your Windows desktop.
X11 forwarding is generally when you run a graphical application and have it send it's X11 protocol to a remote X server over a network, but in this case we can tunnel X11 through SSH.
So for example you can use PuTTY to SSH to to your Pi, run a graphical application in the terminal and it'll pop up on your Windows desktop.
You can also use XMing's Xlaunch program to create a launcher without using the terminal but I've never used that successfully.
... but an example for you, here's a screenshot of running the chromium browser on the Pi from a PuTTY terminal, rendering to the X server on a Windows desktop.
... and xeyes for good measure...
Once XMing is running on your PC and you enable X11 forwarding in your PuTTY session you should be OK.
No DE and no VNC required.
XMing is an X server for Windows, so you can run a X graphical application and it'll render on your Windows desktop.
X11 forwarding is generally when you run a graphical application and have it send it's X11 protocol to a remote X server over a network, but in this case we can tunnel X11 through SSH.
So for example you can use PuTTY to SSH to to your Pi, run a graphical application in the terminal and it'll pop up on your Windows desktop.
You can also use XMing's Xlaunch program to create a launcher without using the terminal but I've never used that successfully.
... but an example for you, here's a screenshot of running the chromium browser on the Pi from a PuTTY terminal, rendering to the X server on a Windows desktop.
... and xeyes for good measure...
Once XMing is running on your PC and you enable X11 forwarding in your PuTTY session you should be OK.
No DE and no VNC required.
