PuTTY has no documentation as yet. This FAQ contains the most common questions people ask me as a result of the lack of documentation.
Question:
Does PuTTY support the SSH 2 protocol?
Answer:
Only experimentally. The version 0.49 release doesn't, but the
latest development snapshots can make an attempt at it. Not
everything works, and you might find your sessions fall over
randomly, but give it a try and let me know how you get on.
Question:
Does PuTTY support <some feature or other>?
Answer: Have a look at the Wishlist. If the
feature is listed in there, then it isn't supported in PuTTY. If it isn't, and
you still can't find the feature, then send me an email. But read the
Wishlist first, OK? That's what it's for.
Question:
Can I start an SSH session directly from the command line, without
having to go through the config box?
Answer:
Yes, if you've saved the details of the session: if PuTTY's command
line starts with an @ sign, the rest of the line is interpreted as
the name of a saved session. So putty @mysession
will
do it. (This will also load the rest of the saved settings for that
session, such as font and colours.)
Also, if you've got a development snapshot from after
28-Oct-1999, you can do putty -ssh host.name
, and
putty -ssh
will bring up the configuration box with SSH
selected by default.
Question:
When I double-click on pscp.exe it brings up a command prompt window
which closes again immediately. What's wrong?
Answer:
PSCP is a command-line application. It has no GUI. If you're
familiar with the Unix "scp
" command, you'll be
immediately at home with PSCP. If not, bring up a Command Prompt
window and type "pscp
" (assuming it's on your PATH) and
you will be given usage instructions.
Joris van Rantwijk has written some more help on PSCP: follow
this link to
read it.
Question:
Why does selecting a colour in the Colours configuration panel not
do anything?
Answer:
Because that's not what it's for. The Colours panel lists all the
colours which your session might use (depending on what control
sequences the server sends you) and lets you adjust the appearance
of each one. So if your application puts up a heavily coloured
display and the blue bits are too dark to read, you can use the
Colours panel to alter the shade of blue PuTTY uses. But if your
application puts up a whole bunch of black and white text, bringing
up the Colours panel and clicking on ANSI Green won't turn your text
green.
Question:
How do I copy and paste between PuTTY and other Windows applications?
Answer:
Copy and paste in PuTTY works a little like Unix xterm
and similar programs. Dragging the left mouse button in a PuTTY
terminal window selects text and automatically copies it to
the Windows clipboard. Hitting the right mouse button in a PuTTY
window pastes the contents of the Windows clipboard into the session
as if it were typed at the keyboard. If you have a third mouse
button, you can configure the buttons to work exactly like
xterm
.
Question:
How do I change the location of the PUTTY.RND random number seed
file, if I don't like where PuTTY puts it by default?
Answer:
Put the full pathname in the Registry, at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY
, as a
String value with the name RandSeedFile
.
Question:
Would you like me to register you a snappier domain name? The PuTTY
web page is hard to find.
Answer:
No, it isn't. You type "putty" into
Google
and it's the very first thing that comes back. The PuTTY web page
will stay where it is, because stability is good, and it's good that
the page should continue to be at the location where people have
already bookmarked it. And if I did want a snappier domain
name, I'd want to have it registered by me or by somebody I know and
trust, rather than by some complete random who I've never met or
spoken to before. (No offence.) So, no thank you.
Question:
Is it safe for me to download PuTTY and use it on a public PC? What
will it leave on the system?
Answer:
It depends whether you trust that PC. If you don't trust the public
PC, don't use PuTTY on it, and don't use any other software you plan
to type passwords into either. It might be watching your keystrokes,
or it might tamper with the PuTTY binary you download.
If you do trust the PC, though, then it's probably OK to use PuTTY
on it (but if you don't trust the network, then the PuTTY download
might be tampered with, so it would be better to carry PuTTY with
you on a floppy).
PuTTY will leave some Registry entries on the PC, which you might
want to clean up, and will also leave a random seed file. The seed
file will be in the Windows directory (usually
C:\WINDOWS
) on a Win95 system, or in your home
directory on a Windows NT system. The Registry stuff will all be
under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY
.
Question:
How do I pronounce PuTTY?
Answer:
Just like "putty". Exactly like the stuff you put on window frames.
It's called PuTTY partly because it makes Windows usable :-)