How to install PuTTY on Windows, Linux and macOS

How to install PuTTY on Windows, Linux and macOS

PuTTY is a free SSH and SFTP client. It's most useful on Windows; macOS and Linux already include an SSH client in the terminal.

Windows

  1. Download the Windows installer (.msi) from the official site, putty.org, which links to the developer's download page.
  2. Run the installer and accept the defaults.
  3. Open PuTTY from the Start menu. PuTTYgen, for creating SSH keys, is installed alongside it.

Only download PuTTY from the official site, as modified copies have been used to spread malware.

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install putty putty-tools

macOS

With Homebrew installed:

brew install putty

This provides the command-line tools such as puttygen, which is handy if you need to convert keys to PuTTY's .ppk format.

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