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WinSCP 5.5 Changes

WinSCP 5.5 is the major stable release of 2013. Users upgrading from WinSCP 5.1.8 get the following improvements.

Improved GUI Experience

  • New toolbar icons and 16×16 icon. 290
  • Simplified Transfer options dialog:
    • The dialog is shown only on the first transfer, when using drag&drop, unless user explicitly opts to show it the next time.
    • Moved the New and updated files only option to Transfer settings.
    • Moved the Do not show this dialog box again checkbox below buttons.
    • Hiding Transfer each file individually when not applicable.
    • Icon to distinguish Copy/Move operation.
    • Do not show this dialog box again implies saving transfer settings
  • Improved working with transfer settings and presets:
    • Not showing default Text mode file mask in Transfer settings box.
    • Showing even default Binary Transfer type in Transfer settings box.
    • Removed “Exclude temporaries” transfer settings preset.
    • Added “Newer and updates files only” transfer settings preset.
    • Reorganized Transfer settings drop down menu, including new Presets header.
    • Hiding unusable presets from Transfer settings drop down menu.
    • Merged configuration of default transfer settings and transfer settings presets.
  • Using “Download” and “Upload” commands to distinguish copying to local and remote directories respectively.
  • Using “Download and Delete” and “Upload and Delete” commands instead of “Move” to distinguish moving files to local and remote directories respectively.
  • Optionally keeping completed transfers in queue list for configurable period of time. 584
  • Replaced file operation toolbar, bottom hot key bar and upload/download toolbar with specialized local and remote file toolbars to allow manipulating local/remote files using mouse, without need to change panel focus (Commander interface only).
  • Improved incremental search for sites on Login dialog: 984
    • Text is searched anywhere in the site name, not only at the beginning.
    • Next/previous matching sites can be searched for.
    • Search text is shown below site list.
  • Displaying queue status on taskbar button. 151
  • Replaced Selection toolbar with specialized local and remote Selection toolbars (Commander interface only).
  • Added label to the most important toolbar buttons. They can be optionally hidden including already existing labels like Command-line label (Commander interface), Address label (Explorer interface) and New session tab label.
  • Moved Commands toolbar of Commander interface first.
  • Find files command moved from Commands toolbar to Remote Navigation toolbar and is now available regardless of focused panel.
  • Renamed Add to Bookmarks command to Add Path to Bookmarks.
  • Removed Close toolbar button from Editor and Log windows.
  • Session menu and toolbar reorganized.
  • Increased height of path labels (Commander interface only).
  • Single-file queue transfers occupy only single line in background transfer queue list.
  • Increased height of background transfer queue list row.
  • User interface icons are shown also in Setup.
  • Turned off automatic stretching of Transfer settings toolbar.
  • Column Attr is hidden by default on local panel.
  • Default (installation) width of the Commander interface is larger, if the screen resolution allows it.
  • Added Download and Download and Delete buttons on Commands toolbar of Explorer interface.
  • Moved Panels node on Preferences dialog to the top-level to reduce nesting.
  • Horizontal line above file background transfer queue list splitter to highlight its presence.
  • Disabling whole Once Empty submenu, when queue is empty.
  • Using own context menu for local files (similar to existing context menu for remote files) by default. 163
  • First column in Editor list in preferences is editor name.
  • Icons are no longer dimmed with Office XP theme.
  • Tab with disconnected session is greyed.
  • Removed SSH Protocol version from Site tooltip.
  • When file cannot be loaded using selected encoding in Internal editor, error is shown. On error loading default encoding, attempts to load using another encoding. 971
  • On main window views without focus respond to mouse wheel. 846
  • Export to INI file moved from Preferences to Login dialog.
  • In Commander interface, the keyboard shortcuts F3 and F5 can optionally have the same meaning as in Windows Explorer (Find File and Refresh).
  • Changing session port number on Login dialog to well know port, updates protocol automatically.
  • Additional F5 shortcut to reload file in internal editor. 986
  • Calculating hot track color of path label to be in contrast with background. 992
  • Simplifying overwrite confirmation prompt: 993
    • Grouping advanced commands to drop down menu under button with related common command.
    • Added thousands separators to sizes.
  • File sizes on Synchronization Checklist and Find dialogs are optionally shown using short format. Use Show files sizes in short format checkbox in the Panels page on the Preferences dialog to control this feature.
  • Changing default tabulator size to 8.
  • Swapped order of Use MLSD command for directory listing and Support for listing of hidden files FTP session options. Also disabling the latter unless the first is set to Off.
  • Simplified Login dialog:
    • Both site tree and basic session controls are visible at the same time.
    • Login dialog is resizable. 378
    • Modal editing of sites.
    • Advanced session controls moved to a separate dialog Advanced Site Settings dialog.
    • Context menu for site tree.
    • Site name and path are specified separately when saving site.
    • Separate entry for New Site in site tree.
    • Global settings such as Interface and Logging removed from Login dialog.
    • Language selection moved from Languages button of Login dialog to Languages page of Preferences dialog.
    • Display of sessions in workspace.
    • SSH Private key file box moved to SSH tab of Advanced Site Settings dialog.
  • Buttons that open drop down menu are marked with an arrow.
  • New icons for Console, Find and Synchronization Checklist windows.
  • Session settings can be exported also to KiTTY, when opening session in PuTTY/KiTTY.
  • Configurable registry key for exporting sessions to PuTTY(-like) clients. 1006
  • New shell icons for site, site folder and workspace.
  • Relevant help is available for more error messages.
  • Renamed Login and Preferences dialogs’ “tabs” to “pages”.
  • Prompt answers Yes to All/No to All moved closer to the primary Yes/No answers.
  • Internal error message boxes feature Report button to directly report the error on support forum.
  • Allowing filtering subdirectories. 1018
  • Convenience and robustness improvements for working with master password: 1023
    • Avoiding repetitive master password prompts, when editing site.
    • Detect and warn when trying to set/clear master password while another instance of WinSCP is running.
    • Not prompting for master password for read-only site view.
    • Hiding an actual password length from read-only site view.
    • When setting/changing/clearing master password, collecting errors while recrypting passwords individually, not to abort whole process on a single error.
    • Gracefully handling stray encrypted passwords, when master password is actually not enabled or different.
    • Feedback and repeated prompt on incorrectly entered master password in scripting mode.
  • Showing number of active and pending transfers on queue label. 1031
  • Information about TLS/SSL version and cipher used in available on Server and protocol information dialog and main window status bar.
  • Ctrl+W shortcut for closing tab (session). 1035
  • Improvements for large font/high DPI environments:
    • Windows and panel size configuration (including default configuration) scales with DPI.
    • Using native “Segoe UI” dialog font in Windows Vista and later.
    • Changing Internal editor and Console window font to “Lucida Console” (Windows 7 and older) or “Consolas” (Windows 8 and newer).
    • Using icon font for file panels/lists, directory trees, path labels, status bars, message boxes and other controls throughout the application.
    • Saving preferred editor font in points, rather than pixels.
    • File panels respond to changes of system icon font.
    • Using native scaling even for scales above 120%/125 DPI.
    • Using Windows native scalable mouse cursors for splitters.
  • Redesigning message boxes after Windows task dialogs.
  • Not allowing operations on focused-only file, when focus is not visible (panel does not have focus). 1050
  • Aligning file information on Overwrite confirmation dialog. 1049
  • Improved placement and effects of drop down menus.
  • Showing Proxy settings box on Advanced Site Settings dialog for SFTP/SCP protocols only.
  • Empty queue notification can be clicked to restore/activate application, respective session and transfer queue list
  • Showing file name in error message when deleting of auxiliary local files fails.
  • Configuration is saved after submitting Preferences dialog (this among other warns user when configuration storage is not writable). 667
  • Opening update information, when clicking update notification balloon. 1047
  • Widening default Changed columns width to accommodate AM/PM suffixes.
  • Hiding Group column by default also in Explorer interface.
  • Do not include confusing FTP server’s intermediate and success responses into error messages.
  • Ctrl+Space shortcut for toggling selection of focused file works in Commander-style selection mode.
  • Message box width is limited.
  • Widened some forms and controls to make space for translation into languages with longer words, such as German.
  • Allowing button selection using Left/Right keys on message boxes with drop down menus. 1054
  • Distinguishing main question of a message box. 46
  • Session can be opened in PuTTY from Login dialog. 190
  • Improved working with session colors:
    • Better standard color set (16 less saturated colors).
    • Remembering recently used custom colors.
    • Drop down color selector on Advanced site settings dialog.
    • Custom colors can be modified on standard Color dialog.
    • Option Default (color) renamed to No Color.
  • Option to create a site desktop shortcut on Save Session as Site dialog.
  • Command to clone site settings to a new site. 1069
  • Automatically saving opened workspace. 1029
  • Not showing Progress window for operations shorter than 200ms.
  • Showing total progress for non-recursive transfers even when Calculate total size transfer settings is turned off. 1040
  • New Site icon on Login dialog and Session tabs.
  • New Open Directory/Location profiles dialog icons.
  • Command to delete all completed queue items.
  • More command and dialog icons.
  • Showing window and application name on Internal editor window caption.
  • Improved layout of message boxes.
  • Showing tree lines on site tree on Login dialog.
  • Warning that editing is in progress when double-clicking edited site on Login dialog.
  • Drop down menu is never not narrower than its button.
  • Not allowing operations on focused-only file, when focus is not visible (application does not have focus). 1050
  • New icons for Move to and Duplicate commands and dialogs.
  • Keyboard shortcut to open site in PuTTY on Login dialog. 1079
  • Improved distinguishing main question of master-password related message boxes.
  • Removed icon from Quit command in menus.
  • It’s possible to Login/Open a site in PuTTY in a new window without closing Login dialog. 1086
  • Using theme instruction font for message texts.
  • Listing new/empty site folders on Save session as site dialog. 1089
  • Increasing number of items shown in drop down lists of some combo boxes.
  • Added host name to some connection related error messages.
  • Canceling site editing when the site is dragged.
  • Allowing Enter and Esc keys on site list of folder/workspace view on Login dialog.
  • Improved error messages related to drag&drop shell extension.

Improved Working with Sites and Workspaces

  • Using term Site instead of Stored session.
  • Site Manager command. 855
  • Sites import from Filezilla. 61
  • Workspace can be saved. 776
  • Whole site folder can be opened at once. 424
  • Desktop shortcut to open site folder can be created.

Improved “During and After Installation” Experience

  • Only shortcut to WinSCP itself is created in Start menu. 616
  • When upgrading, setup offers to restart Windows Explorer (or other applications), when drag&drop shell extension needs to be updated. 686
  • While installing, setup offers sites import from PuTTY or Filezilla.
  • On first edit, WinSCP offers configuration of user’s custom text editor as default editor.
  • Command to Import/restore configuration from INI file.
  • Not requiring Windows nor Windows Explorer restart when new version uses the same or older version of Drag&Drop shell extension than existing one.

Improved Scripting and .NET

  • Transfer resume support can be controlled in scripting (-resumesupport switch of file transfer commands) and .NET assembly (TransferOptions.ResumeSupport property). 834
  • Transfer progress feedback using Session.FileTransferProgress event. 818
  • For special cases, it is possible to accept any SSH host key or any TLS/SSL certificate (with warning) using -hostkey=* in scripting and SessionOptions.GiveUpSecurityAndAcceptAnySshHostKey or SessionOptions.GiveUpSecurityAndAcceptAnySshHostKey in .NET assembly. 815
  • Before opening session using command-line parameter in scripting, warning is printed, that this is deprecated function.
  • Retrospectively logging previous script records when session is starting.
  • Printing transfer progress for small files in bytes in scripting. 964
  • Renamed WinSCP .NET assembly to winscpnet.dll to avoid conflicts with winscp.exe. 945
  • Command Clear caches clears also cache of separate shell session.
  • Change: Not trying to kill WinSCP process from .NET assembly Session finalizer.
  • Event Session.FileTransferProgress is always raised when file transfer completes.
  • Custom command pattern !`command` that expands to output of local command.
  • Subset of custom command patterns can be used in PuTTY path, including !/, !@, !U, !P, !?prompt?! and !`command`. This among other allows opening PuTTY in the same directory as current WinSCP working directory 326; or using different SSH client, such as KiTTY 966.
  • Synchronization preview in scripting. 885
  • System error message is shown when changing local working directory fails in scripting. 1087

Other Improvements

  • Change: Session from commandline and/or from jump list is opened by default using existing WinSCP instance. 769
  • Writing INI file to user’s profile, if program path is not writable. 817
  • Any mouse or keyboard input cancels or resets reconnect countdown.
  • Increased default reconnect interval for idle sessions to 9 seconds.
  • Reconnect interval for idle sessions can be configured independently.
  • Reporting an error when reading of local directory fails during operation. 952
  • When SFTP connection is rejected, knock FTP port. If open suggest using FTP protocol.
  • Dropped support for Windows 2000. Minimal supported version is Windows XP.
  • Using GiB scale for large file sizes. 913
  • Option to reconnect disconnected non-active session, when saving file opened from that session. 917
  • Use of MLSD FTP command is configurable. 927
  • Allowing host key import for SSH protocols only.
  • Added larger values to initial offer of speed limits. 987
  • Offering to remember password for duration of session on password prompt (when settings Remember password for duration of session is turned off). 610
  • Not allowing Timezone offset session setting with FTP protocol, while MLSD listing command is used.
  • Not opening session from jumplist in existing instance, if it is showing error.
  • Moved option to remember session password from Background to Security page of Preferences dialog.
  • Cached SSH host keys are imported by default.
  • Not showing disconnect error message before reconnecting inactive session to upload edited file.
  • Performance improvement.
  • Configurable minimal and maximal supported TLS/SSL version.
  • Reusing TLS/SSL session ID is configurable.
  • Not asking for exit confirmation when Windows session is closing.
  • Reporting connection errors on FTP transfer failure.
  • Change: Using UTF-8 for strings (such as file names) with SFTP protocol by default even for version 3 and lower. 1072
  • Offering to upload edited/opened file using another session to the same site, if original session was closed. 1042
  • Support for FTP servers with Windows-like paths. 1074
  • Verifying TLS/SSL certificates against system Trusted Root Certification Authorities. 1063
  • Change: Removing BOM/EOF marks on text mode uploads is configurable and disabled by default. 842
  • Support for Diffie-Hellman group exchange with SHA-256. 1067
  • SSH core upgraded to PuTTY 0.63 and further to the latest development snapshot (2013-10-09, r10049). It brings following changes:
    • SSH_MSG_UNIMPLEMENTED in response to SSH_MSG_KEXINIT is ignored. kexinit-unimplemented
    • Support for HMAC-SHA-256 as an SSH-2 MAC algorithm (hmac-sha2-256).
    • Bug fix: If the host key isn’t saved, rekeys cause another warning. hostkey-rekey
    • Many other small bug fixes.
  • Improvements to session URL syntax:
    • Support for SSH host key fingerprint specification in session URL using connection parameter fingerprint defined by draft-ietf-secsh-scp-sftp-ssh-uri. 93
    • URL session parameter save to initiate site saving.
    • Change: Symbol ; has special meaning in session URL (due to the above changes) and has to be URL-encoded when used as a literal.
    • Change: UTF-8 encoded characters in session URL are supported. 1062
  • Detecting Drag&drop shell extension on 64-bit systems. 20
  • Bringing an application into foreground, when opening session from commandline and/or from jump in existing WinSCP instance.
  • Tolerating invalid local file timestamps. 1064
  • Pattern !U in Custom command and PuTTY path works even with password entered only during authentication.
  • Do not include information about inability to test, if server IP address is routable, into error messages.
  • Improved registration for URL protocols:
    • WinSCP registers itself with Default Programs control panel for protocol URLS sftp://, scp://, ftp:// and ftps:// on Windows Vista and newer.
    • WinSCP handles application specific protocol URLs winscp-sftp://, winscp-scp://, winscp-ftp:// and winscp-ftps://.
    • It is possible to remove protocol registration from Preferences.
    • It is possible to open Default Programs control panel for WinSCP from Preferences.
    • When registering machine-wide, current-user-specific registration that would shadow it is removed.
  • When saving session opened from SFTP/SCP URL with host key fingerprint, the host key is saved to cache.
  • Not adding UTF-8 BOM to files edited in an Internal editor. 1081
  • For FTP sessions over implicit TLS/SSL, Copy URL to Clipboard command uses ftps:// protocol.
  • Support FTP servers that require TLS/SSL handshake on transfer connection before responding 1yz to STOR/APPE. 1084
  • Support for proprietary SFTP extension statvfs@openssh.com to check disk space usage.
  • Consistently logging modification time and size of every transferred file.

Bug Fixes

  • Bug fix: Text mode transfers should not be resumed FTP protocol. 965
  • Bug fix: No error is shown in Internal editor, when file cannot be loaded using selected encoding. 971
  • Bug fix: Wrong background of path labels with disabled themes. 990
  • Bug fix: Cannot import FileZilla sites in folders. 994
  • Bug fix: FileZilla site logon type is not imported. 995
  • Bug fix: Failure to run WinSCP or open session with .NET assembly after frequent scheduled use. 996
  • Bug fix: Failure when using mouse wheel with mouse cursor outside of WinSCP window. 998
  • Bug fix: Opening session in PuTTY does not work. 1002
  • Bug fix: Failure when disposing Session of .NET assembly. 1008
  • Bug fix: Constant CPU usage when queue is empty. 1013
  • Bug fix: Option Support for listing if hidden files is not working. 1015
  • Bug fix: Incorrect encryption of passwords protected with master password, potentially leading to loss of stored passwords. 1022
  • Bug fix: Pending queued transfers were omitted from queue status display on taskbar button. 1030
  • Bug fix: Failure when using context menu of disconnected session tab. 1033
  • Bug fix: Failure when right-clicking empty area on site tree. 1036
  • Bug fix: Failure when opening the first session with Automatically open new session in PuTTY enabled. 1037
  • Bug fix: Login dialog got corrupted when changing language on systems with Windows XP style font scaling enabled. Worked-around by disabling runtime language change on such systems. 1038
  • Bug fix: Allow SCP fallback session option was not preserved. 1053
  • Bug fix: Failure when excessive session timeout or keepalive interval is configured. 1065
  • Bug fix: Incorrect Login dialog placement when application was closed on non-primary monitor. 1066
  • Bug fix: Local custom commands working with both local and remote files were disabled when file in passive panel was focused only (not selected). 1071
  • Bug fix: Failure when connecting through SSH tunnel. 1076
  • Bug fix: Failure on start when any site has proxy or tunnel password protected with master password. 1077
  • Bug fix: Failure during some operations in FTP over TLS/SSL session. 1078
  • Bug fix: Failure when selecting SSH private key. 1080
  • Bug fix: Time-based SSH key re-exchange does not work. 1082
  • Bug fix: Passwords are lost when any raw session settings is specified in scripting or command-line. 1083
  • Bug fix: It was not possible to skip error listing local directory during operation. 1090
  • Bug fix: Stray folders on initially inactive page of Location profiles dialog. 1094

Other Bug Fixes (not Tracked)

  • Bug fix: Scripting command synchronize sometimes did not announce that there is nothing to synchronize.
  • Bug fix: First Authenticate log entry was trimmed temporarily.
  • Bug fix: Separators on toolbars were showing “E” hint.
  • Bug fix: Incorrect file icon overlay positioning.
  • Bug fix: Not drawing own shortcut overlay over shortcut icons.
  • Bug fix: Records on Authentication window were temporarily truncated.
  • Bug fix: Selection on file panel was not visually updated when panel received/lost focus.
  • Bug fix: Panel path label was not deactivated when focus moved from directory tree to file transfer queue.
  • Bug fix: Download command was not highlighted as default in remote directory context menu when Operation to perform on double-click was set to Copy.
  • Bug fix: It was not possible to pass sequence of consecutive delimiters when skipping to the next “word” in path input boxes.
  • Bug fix: Opened/Closed folder icons on Location profile dialog were swapped.
  • Bug fix: Installer was asking for name of program menu folder, although no folder is created anymore.
  • Bug fix: Missing labels for some answers in scripting (such as Yes to All/No to All on overwrite confirmation prompt).
  • Bug fix: Mismatched warnings about accepting any SSH host key and TLS/SSL certificate respectively.
  • Bug fix: Local directory box was missing on Advanced Site Settings dialog.
  • Bug fix: When adding password to existing site, new password can possibly be unprotected with master password.
  • Bug fix: Dialog boxes were incorrectly considered as submitted when Windows session was closing, causing failures or validation errors, preventing the Windows session from actually closing.
  • Bug fix: Edit toolbar buttons were not disabled when only directories were selected.
  • Bug fix: When changing configuration storage failed (such as when an INI file could not be removed), storage state on Preferences dialog is not rolled back and some of the other changes to preferences were lost.
  • Bug fix: Context menu was popping up after new session was opened when New Session tab was right-clicked.
  • Bug fix: Notification about empty transfer queue was not shown.
  • Bug fix: Wrong detection of Windows Server 2008 R2 for purposes of timestamp conversion in respect to DST.
  • Bug fix: “Never show again” checkbox on information only messages boxes was wrongly labeled “Never ask again”.
  • Bug fix: Hostname and Username masks in autoselection rule of transfer settings preset were not working.
  • Fixes for large font/high DPI environments:
    • Bug fix: Path labels on Commander interface were using different font than the rest of the window.
    • Bug fix: Status bars on some windows did not resize for large fonts.
    • Bug fix: Some images were not centered.
    • Bug fix: Many dialogs were incorrectly resized for large fonts.
  • Bug fix: Failure when validating/executing custom command ending with ! pattern.
  • Bug fix: When saving new site with the same generated name as an existing saved site, an overwrite configuration was not requested.
  • Bug fix: Wrong icon for Enable Queue Processing command.
  • Bug fix: It was not possible to drag a site to a root folder on Login dialog.
  • Bug fix: Wrong check for presence of GSSAPI/SSPI on Advanced Site Settings dialog.
  • Bug fix: When remote directory was not opened using directory tree, a node of the opened directory was not expanded.
  • Bug fix: When some of master-password protected passwords became undecryptable, Sites and Workspaces menus could not be opened.
  • Bug fix: When saving site from SFTP/SCP URL, the saved site was not pre-selected on the Login dialog, unless the URL contained host key fingerprint.
  • Bug fix: Failure when closing Windows session.
  • Bug fix: Environment variables were not expanded in site hostname and username in rare cases.
  • Bug fix: Some messages containing & were shown incomplete.

Last modified: by Petr

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