Install PuTTY\Pageant on Win 10

Install PuTTY/Pageant on Win 10

[Optional] Copy existing .ssh directory from Mac or Unix.

If you already have an .ssh directory from Mac or Unix (or another Windows machine), then copy it to your home directory now, if you haven't already.

You should include your SSH keys, configs, etc.

It's a pain getting Windows to name a directory ".ssh" with a leading dot, but if you have installed MinTTY already then you can just open a MinTTY terminal and rename it to ".ssh" which is required before we move forward.

Install PuTTY

Download the PuTTY installer from the official (if strangely 1995 looking) site

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Install it into C:\tools\PuTTY

Set up Pageant to run at Startup

Open Windows Explorer and navigate to
%appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Create a new Shortcut:

• Target: "C:\tools\PuTTY\pageant.exe" id_rsa.ppk second.ppk third.ppk
• Start In: "%HOMEPATH%\.ssh"

Notice:

• You can pre-load as many keys as you want.
• In the example above, id_rsa.ppk is the primary key, and it also loads 2 more keys: second.ppk and third.ppk.
• Remove second.ppk and third.ppk from the Target line, and replace them with whatever other keys you want loaded (if any).

Make sure it works by executing the shortcut.  You should see Pageant start, and it should prompt you to enter the password for you SSH key.

Edits

06.May.16 - Changed the install location to C:\tools which is more reasonable to use in the path if so desired.