PuTTY and Gpg4win

Prerequisite(s)

• gpg and Gnu Privacy Assistant (GPA) installed. Both are included with Gpg4win.
• An authentication subkey.
• PuTTY - Find the official build here. 64bit builds are available here.

Configure GPA

1. Open Gnu Privacy Assistant (GPA)

2. Edit > Backend Preferences

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3. GPG Agent > enable-putty-support

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Restart gpg-agent

1. Open a command prompt and run the following:

   cmd.exe

   gpg-connect-agent killagent /bye
   gpg-connect-agent /bye

Run agent on boot

1. Open the Run dialog (Win + r)

2. Run: shell:startup


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3. Right click in the window > New > Shortcut

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4. Browse to select C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG\bin\gpg-connect-agent.exe

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5. Optionally give the shortcut a friendlier name, and click Finish.

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6. Right click on the shortcut > Properties

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7. Add ' /bye' to the end of the target.

   Full target Expand source

   "C:\Program Files (x64)\GnuPG\bin\gpg-connect-agent.exe" /bye

8. Optionally, set 'Run:' to 'Minimized' to make it less intrusive on startup.

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Configure PuTTY

1. In the PuTTY config, go to Connection > SSH > Auth

2. Under "Authentication methods", enable "Attempt authentiation using Pageant" (this may be the default, in which case, there is nothing to do).

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   PuTTY settings do not persist, unless you save the session.