Private Key file option gone from main window?

Hello,

I'm very upset to see that the Private key file field is now removed from the main interface and is buried under advanced settings. Please add it back to the main interface, or at the very least, add a configuration option to add it to the interface.

My use case is that I manage many servers that I don't have a profile saved for each. Adding a default key won't work on all of my environments, and creating a profile for each server would take too much work.

I'm sorry that the new version makes your work with WinSCP more difficult.
Though, private keys are used by less than 10% of WinSCP users. For beginners it's confusing to have it on the front page as that makes it feel like mandatory field. And most of them have no idea what private key is. I believe that advanced users can find it even in the new place.
Have you considered using authentication agent (Pageant) instead of specifying private keys directly in site settings?
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pageant

I found the new position for the key detail. The problem I am hitting is that when I browse to the .ppk key it says that the key couldn't be found or wasn't in a recognisable format. Clearly it's the latter but it hasn't been a problem before and if I selct ignore then it works. What is ignore doing is it just ignoring the alert and saying use anyway?

guestuserposting wrote:

I found the new position for the key detail. The problem I am hitting is that when I browse to the .ppk key it says that the key couldn't be found or wasn't in a recognisable format. Clearly it's the latter but it hasn't been a problem before and if I selct ignore then it works. What is ignore doing is it just ignoring the alert and saying use anyway?

Thanks for your report.
So when exactly do you get the alert? After you click Open on Select private key file window? What is your key like? Can you generate new key of the same format (and test that you get the same alert using it) and attache it here (or send it to me)?


And yes, the Ignore says "ignore the alert and use the key anyway". But that should not work if the key is in wrong format. So there's something wrong. Ignoring the alert may make a sense, e.g. when you specify a path to a key file that does not exist yet, but you plan to create it later.

Yes as soon as I select open it comes back with that message

The key pair was created ages ago using puttygen.exe version 0.60

The private key format is as follows:

PuTTY-User-Key-File-2: ssh-rsa
Encryption: none
Comment: rsa-key-then 8 digits - removed by me for posting
Public-Lines: 4
actual content removed by me for posting
Private-Lines: 8
actual content removed by me for posting
Private-MAC: actual content removed by me for posting

guestuserposting wrote:

Yes as soon as I select open it comes back with that message

The key pair was created ages ago using puttygen.exe version 0.60

The private key format is as follows:

PuTTY-User-Key-File-2: ssh-rsa
...

I've generated the same type of key using same version of PuTTYgen, but I could not reproduce your problem.

Can you send me an email, so I can send you back a debug version of WinSCP to track the problem? Please include link back to this topic in your email. Also note in this topic that you have sent the email. Thanks.

I am having an issue with FTPS connection, I loaded the private key file using the pagent

when run the open connection from command line or using winscp, it says client Certificate not presented

open ftp://XX:YYYY -explicitssl

providing the user name after that

Ashok wrote:

I am having an issue with FTPS connection, I loaded the private key file using the pagent

when run the open connection from command line or using winscp, it says client Certificate not presented

open ftp://XX:YYYY -explicitssl

providing the user name after that

Please start a new thread for your issue.
Also note that Pageant is for SSH (SFTP/SCP) only. It does not work with FTPS (FTP over TLS/SSL).
Also note that WinSCP does not support client certificates:
https://winscp.net/tracker/921