October 15, 2024

It’s here. The classic SSH client app PuTTY is now officially available as a Windows app, with version 0.76 being the first release.

With PuTTY, you can log in remotely to different computers (usually through SSH) and manage them.

Installing PuTTY for Windows:

To download and use it for Windows, open the Microsoft Store and search for PuTTY. Alternatively, open the app link from here to have it launch in Microsoft Store.

PuTTY in Windows store

Click on the Install button to get started. After PuTTY is installed, it will show up in the recently added items, or you can search for it by the Windows search function.

PuTTY installed

Using PuTTY:

If you have used PuTTY as a standalone download before, then the interface will be familiar.

main interface for PuTTY

To set up a remote SSH session, enter the hostname or the IP address of the remote device, and the custom port number if any. (Many SSH-enabled computers use a different port than the standard 22 for security.)

opening a ssh connection using PuTTY

Click on the Open button once all the details are accurate. You can now log in and remotely manage the computers with PuTTY.

remotely logged in from Windows using PuTTY

Tip: For frequently accessed remote SSH connections, you can save them as profiles. Enter the remote IP address/hostname/port number and give it a name under the Saved Sessions section. Then, click on the Save button.

saving ssh sessions in PuTTY

This will save this profile for later use.

To use it, choose the saved session and click on Load.

loading ssh sessions in PuTTY

All the details will be auto-filled because they were saved before, and all you need to do is click on the Open button to connect.

Other PuTTY settings:

You can change the cursor appearance, the font style, and more from the Appearance section.

appearance settings

Click on it and change these settings as needed.

Special commands in PuTTY:

While logged in through PuTTY, the remote connection may freeze and you can’t exit it from the command line. So, right-click on the active window and choose Special Command.

available special commands

There will be a list of different commands, the common ones being SIGINT, SIGTERM, SIGKILL. These are for terminating or interrupting the current session.

Event logs and clipboard:

PuTTY also has the option of viewing event logs. To get an idea of the current session and for troubleshooting, right-click on the active window and choose Event Log.

viewing the PuTTY event log

It will display all the handshakes and other activities along with the timestamps for the active session.

To copy-paste everything from the remote session screen to a local file, you can use the clipboard function in PuTTY. Right-click on the active window, and choose Copy All to Clipboard. Then, paste the contents into a text file.

copy paste contents from active sessions in PuTTY

This is a classic and popular free tool for managing SSH and has become even better with it being officially available for Windows as an app.

By the way, there are other Windows SSH clients too which you can use to remotely connect and manage computers. Linux distributions already come with the built-in SSH command in the shell, you can also install and use PuTTY in them if needed.

Happy SSH-ing.

By admin

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