Table of Contents

Configuring and using PuTTY/Pageant

PuTTY is a free and easy to use ssh client for Windows. You can use it to connect to your favorite remote Linux servers in text mode, and start remote graphical applications if you also have a running X server

Installation

Official web site: PuTTY Web site

You can install the latest version of PuTTY directly from Microsoft Store, or download the latest 64-bit msi installer

Updating PuTTY

Download the latest version, or just type winget upgrade --id XPFNZKSKLBP7RJ in a Windows Terminal

Launching PuTTY/Pageant

You could directly launch PuTTY (StartPuTTYPuTTY), but it is actually more efficient to use Pageant for opening terminals, especially if you are often going to connect to the same server(s)

Starting Pageant: StartPuTTYPageant

Configuring PuTTY

Launch the PuTTY Configuration manager: (Right click on) PageantNew Session

Creating a new session

In the Session Category:

If you are in a hurry, you can connect to the Linux server specified in the Host Name field by clicking on Open

Changing some useful settings

Adding more connection profiles

Start Pageant, and then the PuTTY Configuration manager: (Right click on) PageantNew Session

New profile for a direct connection to a remote server

New profile with a connection through a gateway

Daily usage of PuTTY/Pageant

Note: PuTTY will ask your password each time you open a session, unless you have ssh keys, and you use Pageant to store your passphrase

Starting a session from Pageant

Once you have started pageant, and configured sessions, you can easily open terminals on the remote servers by right-clicking on the pageant icon, and selecting a Saved Session.

Starting a session from a desktop shortcut

It is possible to create a shortcut on the desktop to start a specific session!

Using ssh keys with PuTTY/Pageant

In this section, we will use key files that have the same base name, and different extensions: e.g. id_ed25519, id_ed25519.pub and id_ed25519.ppk

You should make sure that you can see hidden folders, and files' extensions before you go further!

Read the Using ssh keys section if you don't already know what ssh keys are

  • Do not lose the (existing) ssh keys files you have, or the keys that you will create
    • It is recommended to keep a copy of these files on another computer!
  • Do not forget the passphrase that will be used to unlock the private key
    • If you save the passphrase in a file, do not put this file in the same place as the ssh keys
    • Read Do not forget your passphrase! if you need some advice about passphrases
  • The best thing to do is probably to store the key files in the standard ssh configuration directory of each desktop/laptop/servers you use!

Converting existing ssh keys with PuTTYgen

If you already have a private ssh key generated on another computer (e.g. an id_ed25519 text file), you just have to use PuTTYgen to import the existing private key, and then export it to a converted id_ed25519.ppk file that Pageant can use

Creating ssh keys with PuTTYgen

If you don't already have an existing set of recent-enough ssh keys, follow the steps below to create a set of private and public keys.

Notes:

Steps:

Using the private key in Pageant

We assume that the private key file is available locally in <some_disk_different_from_c>:\Users\<your_login>\ssh\





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