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PuTTY & WinSCP - transferring settings

By EssingtonITS team ·

Learn how to backup and transfer your PuTTY and WinSCP settings by exporting registry keys and configuration files. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for both applications, ensuring you can easily restore settings on another computer.

PuTTY

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Exporting Your PuTTy Configuration

Putty stores its settings in the Windows registry. To save a backup of your Putty settings, you'll need to export this registry key to a file. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham (Simon Tatham is the original developer responsible for PuTTy)

  1. Click Start->Run and type "RegEdt32" in the "Open" dialog. Click "Ok" 
  2. One RegEdt32 starts, press "Ctrl+F" to bring up the Find dialog. Enter the name of the key, "SimonTatham" in the "Find What" field, and make sure only "Keys" is checked in the "Look At" section of the dialog. Finally, click "Find Next" 
  3. Click File->Export. Give your file an appropriate name like, "putty.reg" and click "Save" Import Settings: To import your saved PuTTy configuration on any other Windows computer simply copy your exported registry key, right click on the file and click "Merge" - ignore stupid Windows warning.

WinSCP

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Exporting/Backing up the Configuration

To export/back up your configuration, go to Tools > Export/Backup configuration on Sites/Stored Sessions page of Login dialog (available only in the latest beta release).

In versions prior to the latest beta release, use Export button on Preferences dialog. To import/restore the configuration, go to Tools > Import/Restore configuration on Sites/Stored Sessions page of Login dialog (available only in the latest beta release).

In versions prior to the latest beta release, copy the exported INI file into the directory that WinSCP is installed. If you do not have a write permissions to the installation directory, you can point WinSCP to a different location.

These articles are created by the engineers at EssingtonITS as part of our day-to-day work supporting real-world systems, projects, and deployments. From Linux administration and networking to Moodle, Docker, automation, and infrastructure management, our goal is to share useful knowledge that helps others solve problems faster and work more efficiently.

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