Recent Version History

This is list of changes for each release of WinSCP. See also project history.

Not Released Yet

2008-02-13

SSH core upgraded to PuTTY 0.60. It brings following changes:
- Support for “local proxying”, where a network connection is replaced by a local command.
- Various cryptographic improvements in SSH-2, including SDCTR cipher modes and a workaround for a weakness in CBC cipher modes. Support for Diffie-Hellman group exchange with SHA-256 was not included due to performance problems.
- Support for the Arcfour cipher in SSH-2.
- When Pageant is running and an SSH key is specified in the configuration, WinSCP will now only try Pageant authentication with that key. This gets round a problem where some servers would only allow a limited number of keys to be offered before disconnecting.
- Support for SSH-2 password expiry mechanisms, and various other improvements and bugfixes in authentication.
- A change to the SSH-2 password camouflage mechanism in 0.58 upset some Cisco servers, so we have reverted to the old method.
- Random seed file is being stored to application data folder when possible.
- Bug fix: SSH-1 connections tended to crash, particularly when using port forwarding.
- Bug fix: SSH Tectia Server would reject SSH-2 tunnels from WinSCP due to a malformed request.
- Bug fix: SSH-2 login banner messages were being dropped silently under some circumstances.
- Bug fix: IPv6 should now work on Windows Vista.
Stored sessions can be organized into folders. 34
Switched to Quest PuTTY implementation of Kerberos/GSSAPI. It brings following changes:
- Preference of GSS key exchange algorithms can be configured on Key exchange tab of login dialog.
- Session option Allow Kerberos 5 ticket forwarding in GSSAPI/SSPI obsoleted (was probably useless anyway).
- Session option Server realm renamed to Service principal name.
In file panel, file sorting by date and size is by default descending.
Speed limit can be actually set in KiB/s.
Speed limit can be set for background transfers.
Custom command to execute SFTP server binary may be specified. This allows using su to run SFTP server. 84
Transfer settings were removed from transfer options dialog to simplify it. The settings can be changed by selecting transfer settings preset or by invoking custom transfer settings dialog (the same way as for synchronization).
More than one host key for a host may be accepted.
It is possible to cancel connection attempts of background transfer.
Proxy settings to check for updates can be automatically detected from system and IE settings.
When synchronized browsing is on and entered directory does not exist in an opposite directory, WinSCP offers to create it.
Saving password to stored session must be explicitly requested using checkbox on save session dialog (replaces previous warning message box). 136
Change: Removed One file only editing mode.
Added several switches to scripting commands to extend their capabilities with functionality available in GUI already:
- /mirror for synchronize;
- /delete for synchronize and keepuptodate (obsoletes option synchdelete);
- /permissions, /nopermissions and /speed 109 for get, put, synchronize and keepuptodate;
- /delete, /preservetime and /nopreservetime for get and put;
- /timeout and /privatekey for open.
Added switch /hostkey to command-line and open script command to automatically accept host keys with given fingerprint.
During resumable transfers, the destination file is not removed (if present) until the transfer actually finishes.
When opening secondary shell session, startup actions like clearing of aliases, unsetting national variables and looking up user groups are not performed.
For SCP protocol, listing command can be fully specified to overcome specifics of platform (this obsoletes former option Alias LS to display group name). 142
New patterns for custom commands: !/ expands to current remote path, !@ expands to current session hostname.
Transfer and session toolbars automatically stretches to right window edge.
Command line panel is toolbar (can be docked elsewhere).
Address and command line drop down boxes follow the toolbar style.
On Explorer-like interface, path on address toolbar is editable.
KiB is used instead of KB for kilobyte.
Estimated time is shown instead of elapsed time in queue list.
Open in PuTTY makes PuTTY use Telnet or SSH session for FTP sessions in WinSCP.
Host key confirmation dialog has an option to copy the key into clipboard.
Server does not use UTF-8 changed to UTF-8 encoding for filenames and moved to Environment tab, as it is used also by FTP protocol.
Timezone offset moved to Environment tab, as it is used also by FTP protocol.
Shift-Del deletes to recycle bin, if deletion to recycle bin is disabled, and vice versa.
Opening bookmarks and home directory do not trigger synchronized browsing anymore.
Drive drop down menu shows My documents when current local directory is below “My documents” folder.
It is possible to optionally overwrite stored password with new one, if authentication with original stored password fails.
When renaming a file within file panel, only filename (without an extension) is selected.
When storing remote file to local temporary directory, full remote path is recreated locally to make identification of file easier (particularly in external editor). 4
Several improvements to internal editor:
- Search direction can be specified.
- Support for multiple undos and redo.
- Tab size can be defined. 12
- Improved toggling of word wrapping.
Print command added to default custom command examples. 6
When operation finishes while minimized, window is no longer restored. Instead taskbar balloon is shown.
When saving current session with password, warning is displayed.
When saving session with password, option is given not to store the password.
Notification balloon is not displayed after background upload of edited/opened file is finished. 143
Edit link function is available in context menu of remote symbolic links.
Size of directory change cache is limited.
Error messages of background transfer are actually presented as errors.
Initial size of Commander-like window is increased.
Improved initial placing of Commander-like window.
Improved call command description with respect to FTP protocol.
ftp protocol added to command-line syntax help.
Most options on SCP tab of login dialog are disabled, when SCP protocol is not selected, to avoid confusion (although they can actually be used when SCP fallback is administered).
Cleaned icons for Open in PuTTY and Log Window.
Default ping interval session option is not saved anymore.
Patterns hint next to proxy telnet/local command on Proxy tab of login dialog.
Change: Transfer option Preserve read-only is off by default.
On download with LF to CR/LF EOL conversion, CR EOL’s were needlessly removed. 67
UTF-8 byte-order-mask is stripped on upload. 82
Example for switching user on login added to Shell session option (/bin/bash -c 'sudo su -').
Bug fix: It was possible to configure Preserve timestamp transfer settings for synchronization, although it is always enabled actually.
Bug fix: Bottom-aligned components of login and preferences dialog may have been positioned (partially) off-screen. 33
Bug fix: Choosing between opening session in current or new window usingShift key was not working properly. 155
Bug fix: Empty directories were not created on upload with FTP. 137
Bug fix: It was possible to import “WinSCP temporary session” back to WinSCP. 148
Bug fix: Overwrite confirmations could not be suppressed for FTP protocol. 153
Bug fix: Main window was opened on primary monitor even if login dialog was moved to other monitor. 135
Bug fix: When cancelling moving of local file to remote directory with FTP protocol, local source file was removed.
Bug fix: Pressing Esc while renaming session on Login dialog, closed the dialog instead of cancelling the renaming.
Bug fix: When remote file is dropped to place, when dropping is not possible, misleading error message was shown, when drag&drop shell extension was enabled.

4.0.6

2008-01-03

U3 version launches by default PuTTY for U3 and saves settings to its registry key.
Access denied errors upon implicit writing to an INI file are ignored (it is expected that user made the file read-only deliberately).
Drag and drop on 64-bit systems is working (was actually implemented for testing purposes in 4.0.5 already).
When parsing directory listing, “at” sign after permissions is silently ignored
INI file is being saved only when there was a change made.
Bug fix: WinSCP has not allowed ending of Windows session (Log off, Shut down, etc.).
Bug fix: Last line of authentication banner may have been incorrectly listed on authentication window.
Bug fix: When prompt was displayed while reconnecting session with internal editor focused, it was not possible to focus the prompt input box.
Bug fix: WinSCP was ignoring external requests to resize its window (particularly Cascade, Tide Horizontally and Tide Vertically taskbar commands).
Bug fix: WinSCP hanged when authentication prompt was displayed while “timeout” message was shown.
Bug fix: With some servers, it was not possible to remove a directory because WinSCP made the directory current before deletion.
Bug fix: INI file was uselessly being saved also when opened for reading only.
Bug fix: Improved compatibility with MSVDM. Main window no longer minimize into small window caption.
Bug fix: Quotes around string options saved to an INI files were duplicated.
Bug fix: Reference to dragext.dll was not released once not used.
Bug fix: Directory content cache was not reset after timestamp synchronization.
Bug fix: When specifying session using ftp:// URL, correct port 21 is used by default.
Bug fix: When URL of translator was not specified, stray URL was used instead.

4.0.5

2007-10-24

With FTP protocol, errors when parsing file permissions in directory listing are ignored.
Reading/writing INI files is faster.
Hostkey of tunneled session is verified against target session of tunnel.
When opening session in PuTTY, defaults for session options not set by WinSCP are loaded from Default settings of PuTTY.
Increased maximal length of username.
Full system error is reported when writing of local file fails.
Sample custom command Execute changed to ./! (from !).
When parsing directory listing, plus sign after permissions, separated by space, is silently ignored.
When uploading to symbolic link with SFTP protocol, resuming is disabled to preserve the link.
Bug fix: Automatic reconnect in scripting was not working.
Bug fix: When reading of local file failed, while uploading with SFTP protocol, file transfer was interrupted without reporting any error.
Bug fix: When file transfer failed with FTP protocol, whole batch was interrupted, without an option to retry or skip the file transfer.
Bug fix: Failure when parsing of directory listing failed with FTP protocol.
Bug fix: Background color of directory tree icons has not reflected session color.
Bug fix: Removed dependency on netapi32.dll (not present on Windows 95/98/ME).
Bug fix: It was not possible to upload file opened in another application with FTP protocol.
Bug fix: Missing GSSAPI was incorrectly reported, even when SSPI with GSSAPI support was present.
Bug fix: Workaround for occasional bug when opening some dialogs.

4.0.4

2007-09-02

Fallback to simple FTP LIST command, when LIST -a fails.
Workaround for bug in Windows Vista preventing selection of files with keyboard.
Offline network drives are not scanned on startup to prevent long delays before a main window is shown.
Improved security when handling URL’s (from web browser).
Bug fix: When connection was broken during automatic transfers, program stalled for few seconds.
Bug fix: Instability the connection was dropped while keep remote directory up to date function was running.
Bug fix: Malformed prompt for username in scripting.
Bug fix: Second opened session with enabled SSH tunnel (with automatic selection of tunnel port) actually used the existing tunnel of the first session.
Bug fix: Memory leak when SSH connection is refused.
Bug fix: When username is not specified on login dialog, password typing is revealed on authentication dialog.

4.0.3

2007-07-12

Mask *.php* in default text file mask is replaced with *.php and *.php3.
Subdirectories of current directory are not scanned for purpose of displaying in tree view when the tree view is hidden.
Bug fix: Once any transfer is done while keep remote directory up to date is running, its dialog cannot be minimized anymore.
Bug fix: Failure when automatically reconnecting the session from script with option batch continue.

4.0.2 beta

2007-05-29

Bug fix: Popup menus invoked from buttons were not working.

4.0.1 beta

2007-05-28

FTP core upgraded to FileZilla 2.2.32. The upgrade solves some vulnerabilities.
When Session sheet is automatically selected on Login dialog (creation of new session, etc.), the Host name box is focused.
Username of the main session is reused for background transfers.
Different set of keepalive settings is used for FTP. FTP now has keepalives enabled by default.
For convenience, file mask “*.” matches files without an extension (even if the name does not include the dot at all).
When window is minimized during transfer that is part of synchronization, it stays minimized till the end of synchronization.
After failure to open session requested from command line, login window is not shown.
Command Open in PuTTY uses tunnel for current session.
Global configuration that can be set on login dialog (user interface style, logging) is saved when session it saved.
Alt+F6 now edits the link (if applicable).
Bug fix: Checksum calculation with SFTP protocol was not working at all.
Bug fix: For remote directories with names like “C:”, the icons of local drives were used.
Bug fix: Proxy setting were ignored when setting up SSH tunnel.
Bug fix: Password for proxy was ignored with FTP.
Bug fix: SFTP uploads occasionally hanged.
Bug fix: Prompts (such as password prompts) for background transfers froze the main window.
Bug fix: It was not possible to change path by Browse button (such as path to a log file).
Bug fix: Yes to All on overwrite confirmation box was not working (FTP only).
Bug fix: For automatic transfers (uploads from editor, synchronization), the transfer was incorrectly automatically “resumed” when source file was larger than destination one, leaving content of file corrupted (FTP only). The issue may also make uploads from editor impossible in case server does not support (text file) transfer resuming.
Bug fix: Local files excluded from transfer (upload) were indefinitely locked by WinSCP.
Bug fix: Script failed once it needed to ask for password (with SFTP and SCP only).
Bug fix: Open session in PUTTY did not use stored password.
Bug fix: When switching back to WinSCP internal editor from another application, the main WinSCP window was focused instead.
Bug fix: When synchronization occurred while the Keep remote directory up to date dialog was minimized, it was not possible to restore it.

4.0 beta

2007-04-07

FTP support (based on FileZilla project).
WinSCP can itself setup SSH tunnel to allow indirect connections through proxy SSH host.
WinSCP executable is now named WinSCP.exe instead of WinSCP3.exe. The same change applies to default installation path and Start menu group (for upgrades, existing WinSCP3 path is preserved).
Added simple “typical installation” option to setup that requires no further interaction from the user (apart from interface selection for fresh installs).
Optional minimization to taskbar notification area (system tray).
When executed as standalone (not installed) for the very first time, an INI file is used by default, if user has write permissions to directory, where WinSCP is executed from.
Taskbar balloons optionally used for notifications when appropriate:
- When inactive session is disconnected.
- When background transfer queue is emptied (except for active session, when queue list is visible).
- When user interaction is required, while WinSCP is minimized.
- When new release is detected.
File checksum can be calculated from Properties dialog (providing the server supports the functionality).
SFTP uploads optimized.
New option for handling of remote file timestamps: Preserve remote timestamp.
New scripting option option batch continue. When set, WinSCP ignores and skips all errors.
New scripting option option echo to enable echoing of commands being executed.
New command to execute the last ad hoc custom command.
Tabs on Login dialog that have no usable option for current context (e.g. protocol) are hidden.
“Host hasn’t answered for X seconds” message disappears itself once the response finally arrives also in scripting.
File edited in an internal editor can be reloaded (refreshed).
Support for SSPI authentication.
Support for Kerberos ticket forwarding.
Configuration can be exported to an INI file.
New command Duplicate session.
Mirror mode for synchronization, where files are updated on any timestamp difference (i.e. even newer files are updated).
Custom commands history stores also the command options.
Preview changes for synchronization is enabled by default.
Quick preset buttons for Windows and Unix systems on Environment tab of Login dialog (visible when advanced options are turned off only).
It is no longer required to specify username of login dialog. User is prompted for username once required (and only if required).
Information shown on status bar were reduced.
Environment variables can be used in most configurable paths (like path to random seed file, log file, configuration INI file, PuTTY executable, folder for temporary files, private key file, etc.). The syntax is %NAME%. Part of U3 support.
Script aborts eventually after receiving no answer for prompt (like password prompt), when running in batch mode.
Whole authentication prompt is shown, even if it spans multiple lines.
When Shift key is hold while New session or Duplicate session commands are selected, the session is opened in new instance (window) of WinSCP.
Button Load on Stored sessions tab of Login dialog renamed to Edit.
F1 opens help for current tab on Login and Preferences dialogs.
What’s this button on dialog caption (?) opens help directly.
Button Help replaced with Close on Login dialog.
Single log file is used for all connections of one session (background transfer connections, secondary shell connection, tunnel connection).
During silent uninstall, user is not prompted for cleanup of application data.
Workaround for SSH servers based on cryptlib, which reports invalid files types in response to SSH_FXP_LSTAT request.
Configuration of GSSAPI/SSPI authentication is exported to PuTTY sessions.
When changing configuration storage, also caches (change directory cache, accepted SSH host keys, accepted banners) are transferred to the new storage.
Context menu of permissions popup and input boxes has clipboard management commands.
Menu item captions capitalized according to Windows standard.
More internal error messages from PuTTY code are being localized.
When saving the edited session under the same name, overwrite confirmation is not requested.
Shell options of SCP tab of login dialog redesigned.
Timestamps are saved in numerical format into an INI file for portability among systems with different date/time format.
Status bar message about preset auto-selection can be clicked to reveal information about the preset.
Preset information dialog has Configure button that opens preset preferences.
Detection of OpenSSH sftp-server is more strict, not to apply on other SFTP servers running under OpenSSH.
Pattern hint link for log file name added.
For fatal errors (e.g. “lost connection”), original cause of the problem is kept as a top message, as opposite to regular errors, where contextual error message is on top.
Buttons Login and Save on Login dialog swapped.
When Handles SSH-2 key re-exchange badly bug is enabled, the Key exchange tab is hidden.
Web page shortcuts in Start menu are now direct shortcuts instead of shortcuts to URL file.
New button What’s new on information box about updates.
Bug fix: Failure when changing languages (particularly with “Data execution protection” enabled).
Bug fix: Failure, when remote command had character % in its error output.
Bug fix: Close button were default even, if path box on Space available tab of Server and protocol information dialog had focus.
Bug fix: Remote home directory of session was set to current working directory, after switching sessions.
Bug fix: Local home directory were changing while switching sessions, even when changing of local panel state with sessions is disabled.
Bug fix: INI file specified by filename-only using /ini parameter was not looked for in current working directory.
Bug fix: Ad hoc command executed from file panel context menu was executed for selected files, despite the menu being opened for not-selected file.
Bug fix: Infinite loop of error messages when connection was broken while timeout message was being shown.
Bug fix: Trailing delimiter text were occasionally left in remote command output.
Bug fix: Some authentication progress steps were not shown on authentication window for secondary shell sessions.
Bug fix: Inactive sessions were not kept alive.
Bug fix: Incorrect sizing of internal editor windows opened on non-primary monitor.
Bug fix: Automatic retry after timeout was not working.
Bug fix: Stored session may be lost when letter case was changed solely during rename.
Bug fix: It was not possible to cancel text mode upload with SCP protocol.
Bug fix: Change directory cache may become corrupted when using INI file for configuration.
Bug fix: Drag&drop download was not working, if relative path was used for temporary folder. Part of U3 support.
Bug fix: After startup, button on taskbar was not “pressed”, even if WinSCP login dialog had focus.
Bug fix: Failure when closing console window.
Bug fix: When moving files from remote directory tree, the tree was not updated after operation, leaving icon for no-longer-existing directory.
Bug fix: Octal display of file permissions was not filled if no permissions were set for a file.
Bug fix: Failure to change attributes of local files was not reported sometime.