Windows – .ssh/config File for Windows 10’s SSH

opensshsshwindows

I'm on a Windows 10 machine, with an SSH client at C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH (must be part of the OS these days). I'm used to Unix-land SSH, where there's a configuration file at $HOME/.ssh/config.

My question: Does Windows' OpenSSH have such a file? If it does – where is it located? And if it doesn't – how do you configure it other than through the command-line?

Note: Please don't suggest I use Cygwin or PuTTY. Both of these are fine options, but I'm specifically asking about the Windows-supplied SSH client.

Best Answer

The OpenSSH configuration and key files (including the config, known_hosts, authorized_keys, id_rsa, id_dsa, etc.), which on Unix go to ~/.ssh, on Win32-OpenSSH they go to %USERPROFILE%\.ssh.

That typically is:

C:\Users\username\.ssh

Though there's an exception for administrator authorized_keys. Win32-OpenSSH uses %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys instead. See my guide to Setting up SSH public key authentication on Win32-OpenSSH server.

Win32-OpenSSH is a Microsoft build of OpenSSH, which is now a standard part of Windows 10.

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