Integration with Other Applications

In addition to being based on source code of this popular SSH client, WinSCP can also share site settings with it.

To import sites (stored sessions) from PuTTY go to Tools > Import Sites on Sites/Stored sessions page of Login dialog.

If WinSCP’s limited ability to execute remote commands does not meet your needs, you can let WinSCP open a shell session on the same server in a PuTTY client. Go to Commands > Open in PuTTY.

By default, WinSCP creates temporary site settings for PuTTY (under the name “WinSCP temporary session”). The site settings will contain only the options known by WinSCP, mostly connection options. It will particularly lack any terminal options, so the defaults (Default Settings profile) will apply.

If you want to configure your own options, you can save PuTTY site settings with the same name as a WinSCP site. WinSCP will then instruct PuTTY to open that session (It will not export any settings, nor a connection options).

If WinSCP cannot find the PuTTY executable in the default path (particularly when you are using derived version of PuTTY) you can specify the path in preferences. Optionally you can also instruct WinSCP to send the session password (if known) to PuTTY. However a better approach would be to use public key authentication together with Pageant.

You can also set up WinSCP to Automatically open new sessions in PuTTY.

If you want PuTTY to open in the same directory as WinSCP, you need to replace its startup command using -m argument. The syntax of the startup command would differ with the remote environment, particularly with operating system and shell.

For example with Unix-like system and bash shell the command will be like (note the !/ pattern to pass current remote path):

cd "!/" ; /bin/bash -login

As PuTTY needs to have the startup command to be stored in a file, you need to make use of !`command` pattern to store the above command into a temporary file. Also as use of -m switch implies a non-interactive terminal, you need to force an interactive terminal back using -t switch.

Complete PuTTY command line for this will be like (change the shell path according to your system and preferences):

%PROGRAMFILES%\PuTTY\putty.exe -t -m "%TEMP%\putty.txt" !`cmd.exe /c echo cd "!/" ; /bin/bash -login > "%TEMP%\putty.txt"`

This feature is available only in the latest beta release.

For your convenience you can download PuTTY also from our download page.

If you want to use KiTTY, instead of PuTTY, you need to configure path to KiTTY executable in preferences.

When using KiTTY in registry (non-portable) mode, you also need to specify KiTTY registry key in preferences.

When using KiTTY in portable mode, you need to specify pattern !U@!@ in terminal client path as an alternative way to pass hostname and username to KiTTY:

kitty.exe !U@!@

To open KiTTY in the same directory as WinSCP, you can use either the same technique as with PuTTY; or use KiTTY’s -cmd switch to avoid use of temporary file:

kitty.exe -cmd "cd ""!/""" !U@!@

This feature is available only in the latest beta release.

If you want to use Cygwin/OpenSSH, instead of PuTTY, you need to configure path to Cygwin/OpenSSH executable in preferences. You also need you to specify pattern !U@!@ in arguments to pass hostname and username1:

<path_to_cygwin>\bin\mintty.exe /bin/ssh !U@!@

where <path_to_cygwin> is by default C:\cygwin (32-bit) or C:\cygwin64 (64-bit).

For editing files in WinSCP you can configure it to use your favourite editor.

Learn how to use the Pageant (PuTTY’s SSH authentication agent) application for public key authentication.

This feature is available only in the latest beta release.

To import sites (stored sessions) from FileZilla go to Tools > Import Sites on Sites/Stored sessions page of Login dialog.