PuTTY – How to Switch User in Login Window

For some versions of PuTTY, it's as simple as one of:

putty.exe mylogin@somewhere.com -pw mypassword
putty.exe somewhere.com -l mylogin -pw mypassword

If you want to connect using SSH, use this:

putty.exe -ssh root@somewhere.com -pw mypasswordforsomewherecom

For those using Windows, you can simply create a shortcut and pass in these parameters.

For example:

1. Create a shortcut on the desktop to putty.exe
2. Rename the shortcut to PuTTY - server.com
3. Right-click shortcut and choose Properties
4. Modify the target similar to: "C:\Program Files\PuTTY\putty.exe" user@server.com -pw password
5. Click OK

If your PuTTY does not support the pw parameter, you will need a public key as explained in:
Creating and Copying Your Key-Pair in PuTTY SSH Client (alternate up-to-date instruction source).

Add -t to allocate a pty ... Ok, so now the user input can be seen, but I get Ctrl+H (^H) when backspace is pressed

Make your script run [ -t 0 ] && stty erase ^H and the Backspace key should be accepted.

An even better solution is to use a port of OpenSSH – for example, that from Cygwin or MinGW – it will give you full terminal emulation as PuTTY does, but keep it in the console window. (The plink tool is designed for raw 8-bit data transfers.)

Edit: A downside of Cygwin might be its lack of IPv6 support (if I remember correctly).

Get password prompt, cannot provide password like with plink

[...] but this is a closed, private network, and its easier not to bother with keys!

And yet you have a problem which setting up keys would solve :)

(I'll feel bad for saying this, but PuTTY also accepts -pw.)