It is pretty easy to SSH into a Windows PC. Install Cygwin, install OpenSSH, run the ssh-host-config script as an admin, and open the port in Windows Firewall. I use OpenSSH and rsync to transfer data from a Windows web server to a Linux database server, initiated from the Linux side via cron and logging into an Active Directory domain account using RSA public key authentication.

I have never noticed any performance problems with Cygwin.

Then again, for the given scenario, you could connect to the Windows PC via RDP.