- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pageant.exe – an SSH authentication agent for PuTTY, PSCP and Plink
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ssh-agent
PuTTY’s authentication agent pageant combines the functionality of ssh-agent and ssh-add, and if you start it up, it makes sense to add the necessary private keys on its command line. You can do this using a script, but in Windows it’s convenient to does this through a “.lnk” shortcut. And if you place that “.lnk” file in Windows’ user startup directory, you won’t forget to start it manually.
Here is a nice description of how to make “… Pageant automatically load keys on startup“:
Basically:
- let all your private keys live in one directory!
- make this directory the one to “Start in:” (that’s a property of the “.lnk” file)!
- and name the private keys (where you pass them to Pageant) w/o the directory.
- https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/add-an-app-to-run-automatically-at-startup-in-windows-10-150da165-dcd9-7230-517b-cf3c295d89dd – Win 10
Recipe (Win <10):
- within your Windows auto-start-up folder (Start > All Programs > Startup — right-click > Open) …
- create a Windows “shortcut” to Pageant.exe, it gets called pageant.exe.lnk!
- edit the shortcut’s properties!
- tell the command line, where to “Start in:“!
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\puttyor%USERPROFILE\etc\putty(that’s where you created resp. left your private keys using PuTTYgen) - add the private keys on the command line within “Target:” (
YOUR.ppk)– and the paths may be relative to the directory you mentioned in “Start in:“
It’s helpful to dump the details of pageant.exe.lnk using one of these nice tools:
- http://Jochen.Hayek.name/wp/blog-en/2017/12/06/cygwin-cygutils-readshortcut/
- http://Jochen.Hayek.name/wp/blog-en/2017/12/06/pylnker/ – refers you to a Python and a Perl tool
PuTTY’s authentication agent “Pageant” has its counterparts in: ssinf h-agent + ssh-add