PuTTY stores its session information in the registry, and there’s no function in PuTTY itself to import/export sessions. This makes moving to a new computer a little sticky. I did some googling and whittled down the documentation for storing configuration in a file into a few steps:
- On the old computer, open up a command prompt (not cygwin), and run:
regedit /ea new.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY - Copy new.reg onto the new computer
- On the new computer, open up a command prompt (not cygwin), and run:
regedit /s new.reg
Done!
Joshua Bloom | 29-Mar-07 at 1:27 pm | Permalink
Hey Ryan,
http://socialistsushi.com/portaputty This guy has hacked Putty to store its settings in the filesystem. It creates a folder .putty and stores each of your saved sessions in a separate text file. You can even duplicate and update the files with an editor if you’ve got a change to make across all your sessions.
-Josh
Vibrant Journey » PuTTY Migration | 12-Apr-07 at 1:11 pm | Permalink
[...] It is always nice to have 24hour support available online. I’m migrating to a new computer and needed to migrate my PuTTY (an SSH client) configuration. There is no built in way to do it, but you can get the settings out of the registry. Ryan’s Tech Blog has the short list of instructions. [...]
shahrul | 13-Aug-07 at 12:15 am | Permalink
salute to you my brother…it’s work….im having hundreds of saving session…all migrated..yahooooooooo
Big Bill's Rantings » Migrate PuTTY saved sessions | 15-Nov-07 at 12:08 pm | Permalink
[...] I was moving Things around on my Work Laptop. Things like VMWare Sessions/Operating Systems and Pieces to/from VMWare Sessions. When I came across the PuTTY Software and decided to move it. I had several different session configurations set up in PuTTY. How was I to move all of those since they are kept in the registry and now way to export them in PuTTY?? By hand?? Surely someone has come across this before. Remember, Google is your friend. Someone had. Thanks Ryan who runs Ryan’s Tech Blog. Who had this to say: Migrate PuTTY saved sessions [...]
Пренасяне на запазените сесии на PuTTY на друг компютър | Блогът на Гонзо | 15-Jan-08 at 12:43 pm | Permalink
[...] но PuTTY пази настройките в регистрито. Намерик кратко описание, но не знам защо командата за експорт не свърши работа [...]
Tracy Sedgwick | 28-Mar-08 at 6:16 pm | Permalink
Thanks so v. v. much – you just saved me lot of time not having to recreate all my saved sessions
Ken Woodward | 24-May-08 at 1:45 pm | Permalink
Thanks Ryan.
That was very helpful!
Shan Shanmuganathan | 27-Jun-08 at 12:50 pm | Permalink
Thank you. Made my life easier.
Mahesh | 13-Jul-08 at 3:20 pm | Permalink
Saved me lots many hours :). Thanks mate
Narendra | 19-Jul-08 at 5:26 am | Permalink
You can add the reg file more easily by right click the merge option
Satheesh Kumar | 03-Aug-08 at 10:59 pm | Permalink
That works…Thanks
Christian Killer’s Blog » Blog Archive » PuTTY: Saved Sessions auf neuen Rechner übernehmen | 09-Sep-08 at 4:30 am | Permalink
[...] Original Beschreibung (englisch) von Ryan’s Tech Blog [...]
Sachin Pendse | 01-Jun-09 at 9:00 am | Permalink
Saved my time as well.
Thanks
Sachin Pendse
Vlad | 18-Jun-09 at 8:23 am | Permalink
Beautiful. Thanks a bunch !
Migrate PuTTY saved sessions « Db2dude’s Blog | 04-Aug-09 at 5:31 am | Permalink
[...] stored its settings in the registry, and there is no builtin import/export functionality. Thanks to Ryan’s Tech Blog I now have a simple solution to the [...]
Joe Shelby | 21-Aug-09 at 4:05 pm | Permalink
tragically, while this works for moving from one machine to another, it doesn’t work if you end up having to create a new account on the same machine thanks to your IT guys doing a domain switch. the binary data in the registry is useless to me.
Juank | 21-Aug-09 at 4:44 pm | Permalink
Hi Buddy. It was so easy.
Thanks a lot.
jim | 29-Oct-09 at 7:18 pm | Permalink
so slick. thanks a bunch. worked like a champ!
Charles | 25-Jan-10 at 10:06 am | Permalink
So easy. Thanks for saving me an hour of typing
andy | 20-Feb-10 at 4:05 am | Permalink
dankz!
carlox | 24-Mar-10 at 6:38 pm | Permalink
Thanks man, You really saved us time
Mano | 25-Mar-10 at 11:22 am | Permalink
Great !!!!!!!!!!!
evt | 20-Apr-10 at 1:57 pm | Permalink
Awesome!!! Restores faith in the mankind along with the settings. Thanks Ryan, many hugs and kisses.
Jose | 17-May-10 at 6:55 pm | Permalink
Worked like a charm!
(Although putty should save its config to a file by default…)
sa | 15-Jul-10 at 1:39 am | Permalink
That worked man ..!!
RJ | 05-Aug-10 at 6:23 pm | Permalink
Me too: Awesome!!! Restores faith in the mankind along with the settings. Thanks Ryan.
But no “hugs and kisses.”, just .. You the man !! :)
Craig A | 10-Aug-10 at 11:19 am | Permalink
Thanks very much for this. It works for copying between Windows user profiles too.
SB | 19-Aug-10 at 1:16 am | Permalink
Excellent… it works…Nothing to be scared abt :)
sandy | 19-Oct-10 at 5:32 am | Permalink
Ahhh… that saves my time too… it worked, thanks mate!!!
Charan | 26-Nov-10 at 4:55 am | Permalink
It worked picture perfect mate…
Thanks a lot for the info…
Cheers,
Charan
Hank | 17-Aug-11 at 9:34 am | Permalink
Thank you for this article, it was immensively helpful.
Sandro Tavella | 29-Nov-11 at 11:16 am | Permalink
it’s possible “migrate” from linux to w$
JW | 12-Jan-12 at 10:13 am | Permalink
Thank you. It was very helpful.
Wong | 04-Apr-12 at 5:25 am | Permalink
It doesn’t work, seen this method all over the place. It only works if you have an INSTALLABLE version of putty. What about the one that is a standalone .exe and there is no Simon folder anywhere in the registry?
Migrate PuTTY saved sessions [ref] « Morgen Free's Blog | 28-Jun-12 at 1:41 am | Permalink
[...] http://ryepup.unwashedmeme.com/blog/2007/02/22/migrate-putty-saved-sessions/ [...]
Renaud Claeys | 07-Aug-12 at 3:16 am | Permalink
Helpful :-) Thanks
Ryan Ash | 27-Dec-12 at 12:55 pm | Permalink
Thanks…a big time saver