This Page is a work in progress
Bitvise SSH Client
BitVise SSH Client Tunnelier is the recommended client for key generation on Windows.
Exporting the Right Public Key
In Bitvise you can export two types of public keys,
- Standard SSH2 format - This is for the Bitvise client
- OpenSSH format - This is for adding to servers for access
This export option can be found by opening Bitvise selecting the User keypair manager.
Select the Key you want to export and click Export...
Select OpenSSH format and click Export
Name the file and save it.
Send the file or the contents to the Server Administrator to add your key
Puttygen
It is not recommended to use Puttygen to generate keys. The software has not been updated in a very long time. Instead, for Windows, look at BitVise SSH Client Tunnelier or a current Unix/Linux system.
Run the puttygen.exe if you do not have it you can download it here.
Here you can change the key type and length for this example we will use default. For more information on industry standards refer to this page.
Click Generate and follow the instructions of moving your mouse in the space till the bar is filled.
Once finished your public key will be displayed as well as some options to set a passphrase and save your keys. The box at the top is your public key that you would copy into your authorized_keys file in the ssh directory. You can also save the public key and send it to others to grant you access to servers.
Note when you save the private key its in format ".ppk"(Putty Private Key) this will only work in the putty client. If you need a private key without the putty format you can find it under Conversions.
The location to load your key in the putty client is in Auth on the left side scroll down and select Auth then browse for you key.
