Transferring PuTTY and WinSCP Configs between Windows Machines

PuTTY

Two links on the subject. The first worked with a bit of modification from me on a Windows XP computer. The second link details another method which may also be of value at some point.

1. http://mshnitzer.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/export-putty-settings-with-a-single-command/
2. http://jasonharry.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/backing-up-putty-configuration/

This is the snippet adapted from the first link that worked for me. There is an option in the context menu in regedit to 'Copy Key Name' which returns the full path for the second part of the command (HKEY_USERS...) which can then just be pasted into the command prompt.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\kyle.jones>regedit /e "%userprofile%\desktop\putty.reg" HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-3746020967-1458184073-2980315844-1216\Software\SimonTatham
C:\Documents and Settings\kyle.jones>

This will create a putty.reg file which, when double clicked on the computer you want to transfer your PuTTY settings to, will populate your saved hosts and settings into PuTTY on the new machine.

WinSCP

I used a similar method for WinSCP after reading a bit at the following link:

1. http://winscp.net/eng/docs/config#transfer

First you must find out whether your instance of WinSCP is storing its configuration settings in a .ini file or the registry. In my case WinSCP was using the registry, and thus the I used the same process for backing up the settings as displayed in the above PuTTY example. One way to find out if WinSCP is using the registry or a .ini file, is to enable logging under 'Options->Preferences->Logging' and take a look at the relevant output. In my case:

. 2013-03-04 11:52:38.833 WinSCP Version 4.3.7 (Build 1679) (OS 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3)
. 2013-03-04 11:52:38.833 Configuration: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Martin Prikryl\WinSCP 2\
. 2013-03-04 11:52:38.833 Local account: kyle.jones
. 2013-03-04 11:52:38.833 Login time: Monday, March 04, 2013 11:52:38 AM

This also helpfully shows use the path in the registry where the settings are stored, which makes it easy to find in regedit or to paste directly into our command prompt:

C:\Documents and Settings\kyle.jones>regedit /e "%userprofile%\desktop\winscp.reg" HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Martin Prikryl\WinSCP 2"

Similar to the PuTTY example, this will leave us with a winscp.reg on our desktop that we can transfer to the new machine.