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How To Transfer PuTTY Sessions To Another Windows Machine

This document describes how to transfer PuTTY sessions between Windows machines by exporting and importing the PuTTY registry key that stores session information. It explains using the Windows regedit command or Powershell to export the key to a .reg file, transferring that file to another Windows PC, and importing it to restore the sessions on the new machine. It also provides brief instructions for transferring sessions between Linux machines or from Windows to Linux by manually copying the session files.

Uploaded by

Bismarck Morales Rivas
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278 views8 pages

How To Transfer PuTTY Sessions To Another Windows Machine

This document describes how to transfer PuTTY sessions between Windows machines by exporting and importing the PuTTY registry key that stores session information. It explains using the Windows regedit command or Powershell to export the key to a .reg file, transferring that file to another Windows PC, and importing it to restore the sessions on the new machine. It also provides brief instructions for transferring sessions between Linux machines or from Windows to Linux by manually copying the session files.

Uploaded by

Bismarck Morales Rivas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to Transfer PuTTY Sessions To

Another Windows Machine


last updated September 9,
2008 in CategoriesNetworking, OpenBSD, UNIX, Windows, Windows server, windows
vista

This is an user contributed article.

PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the SSH, Telnet,
rlogin, and raw TCP computing protocols. You can use putty for remote login or to
control your router connected via serial devices.

By default PuTTY stores the session information in the registry on Windows machine. If
you have several PuTTY sessions stored in one laptop and would like to transfer those
sessions to another laptop, you need to transfer
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham registry key and value as explained
below:

Export the PuTTY registry key on source windows


machine
Click on Start -> Run -> and enter the following regedit command in the run dialog box,
which will place the PuTTY registry key and value on your desktop in the putty-
registry.reg file. Please note that the name of the registry key (Simon Thatham) is the
author of PuTTY.

regedit /e "%userprofile%\desktop\putty-registry.reg"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Simontatham

You can also launch the registry and interactively export the registry key value as
shown below. Click on Start -> Run -> regedit -> Click File menu -> Click Export menu-
item -> Enter HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Simontatham in the “Selected branch”
-> Save the putty-registry.reg to your desktop.

Import the PuTTY registry key on destination windows


machine
Transfer the putty-registry.reg to the destination Windows machine. Right click on the
.reg file and select Merge as shown below. This will display a confirmation message:
Are you sure you want to add the information in putty-registry.reg to registry?. Click on
‘Yes’ to accept this message.

Launch the putty to verify the new sessions are transferred successfully. The registry
key merge will not delete the previous PuTTY sessions. Instead, it will merge the entries
to the existing PuTTY sessions on the destination windows machine.

You can also import the registry key and value interactively: Click on Start -> Run ->
regedit -> Click File menu -> Click Import menu-item ->select the putty-registry.reg ->
click on Import, to import the PuTTY sessions to the destination windows machine.
Posted by: Vivek Gite
The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and
a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on
SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email
newsletter.

How to Back Up and Copy PuTTY


Sessions and Settings to Another PC
Last updated on June 19th, 2019

PuTTY sessions are stored in the Windows Registry under “SimonTatham”, the
developer of PuTTY. We can export these sessions as a Registry Entry .reg file and
back them up for safe keeping, or copy to another computer running PuTTY.

Windows Command Prompt


Firstly, make sure that all PuTTY windows are closed.

We can use Windows Command Prompt in administrative mode to easily export


keys from the Windows Registry.

In Windows 10, open the Start Menu and type cmd, then right-click on


the Command Prompt icon and click Run as Administrator.

Export PuTTY Settings and Sessions


If you want to export all PuTTY settings including sessions, run:

regedit /e "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\putty.reg" HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham


A file putty.reg should now be on your Desktop.

Export PuTTY Sessions Only


If you only want to export PuTTY sessions, run:

regedit /e "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\putty-sessions.reg"
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions
A file putty-sessions.reg should now be on your Desktop. (Note that SSH keys
are not stored in the registry so you will have to copy these manually if you have
any).

Importing PuTTY Settings and Sessions to


Another PC
Make sure that PuTTY is closed before importing registry keys.

Simply double-click the .reg file to import it into your registry. It’s that simple!
How to Transfer / Migrate /
Import / Export PuTTY Session
List from Windows to Linux
pupuweb.com Follow Sep 30, 2018 · 2 min read

Problem: How to export / import / migrate /


transfer PuTTY sessions list from Windows to Linux.
Content Summary
Transfer PuTTY sessions list from Windows to Windows
Transfer PuTTY sessions list from Linux to Linux
Transfer PuTTY sessions list from Windows to Linux
Reference

Transfer PuTTY sessions list from


Windows to Windows
PuTTY stores the session information in registry on Windows OS by default.

Export PuTTY sessions list using cmd.exe require elevated prompt

Only sessions: regedit /e "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\putty-sessions.reg"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions

All settings: regedit /e "%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\putty.reg"

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham

Export PuTTY sessions list using Powershell


Only sessions: reg export HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions
([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop") + "\putty-sessions.reg")

All settings: reg export HKCU\Software\SimonTatham

([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop") + "\putty.reg")

Import PuTTY sessions list

Double-click on the *.reg file and accept the import.

Import PuTTY sessions list using cmd.exe require elevated command prompt


regedit /i putty-sessions.reg

regedit /i putty.reg

Import PuTTY sessions list using PowerShell


reg import putty-sessions.reg

reg import putty.reg

Note: do not replace SimonTatham with your username. Note: It will create a reg file on

the Desktop of the current user.

Note: It will not export related SSH keys.

More detail at https://pupuweb.com/transfer-migrate-import-export-putty-session-list-

windows-linux/

Originally published at pupuweb.com on October 1, 2018.

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