My Putty settings

Putty configuration tips.

• Get Putty
• Regedit
• Configuration summary
  • Window
    • Appearance
    • Behaviour
    • Translation
    • Colours
  • Connection
    • Data
    • SSH
      • X11
• Tips
  • Automate login
• See also

Get Putty

Putty is a free (MIT-licensed) Win32 Telnet and SSH client. You need it if you want to use a terminal on Windows, I mean a real terminal, MS/DOS is not decent.

Check also PuttyTray.

Regedit

For the impatient: copy the following content in a .reg file. To import it in regedit, right click on it and choose merge on the contextual menu.

It will overwrite the Default Settings configuration, details are in Configuration summary.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; This is a comment

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\Default%20settings]
"FullScreenOnAltEnter"=dword:00000001
"Font"="Consolas"
"FontIsBold"=dword:00000000
"FontCharSet"=dword:00000000
"FontHeight"=dword:0000000c
"FontQuality"=dword:00000003
"FontVTMode"=dword:00000004
"UseSystemColours"=dword:00000000
"TryPalette"=dword:00000000
"ANSIColour"=dword:00000001
"Xterm256Colour"=dword:00000001
"BoldAsColour"=dword:00000000
"Colour0"="211,208,200"
"Colour1"="242,240,236"
"Colour2"="45,45,45"
"Colour3"="116,115,105"
"Colour4"="0,0,0"
"Colour5"="252,151,31"
"Colour6"="45,45,45"
"Colour7"="116,115,105"
"Colour8"="242,119,122"
"Colour9"="249,145,87"
"Colour10"="153,204,153"
"Colour11"="102,179,102"
"Colour12"="255,204,102"
"Colour13"="255,189,51"
"Colour14"="102,153,204"
"Colour15"="160,159,147"
"Colour16"="204,153,204"
"Colour17"="232,230,223"
"Colour18"="102,204,204"
"Colour19"="210,123,83"
"Colour20"="211,208,200"
"Colour21"="242,240,236"
"LineCodePage"="UTF-8"
"UTF8Override"=dword:00000001
"X11Forward"=dword:00000001

Configuration summary

Window

Appearance

Use a monospaced font, for instance Consolas with 12 point size.

Choose ClearType as font quality.

Check the Hide mouse pointer when typing window flag.

Behaviour

Check the Full screen on Alt-Enter flag.

Translation

Choose UTF-8 encoding.

Colours

Putty default colours are not the best choice. Since folders are blue on a black background, the output of a simple ls is really hard to see.

The fastest workaround is to flag Use system colours.

You will joy a better color theme, for example this one taken from base16-mintty. See also chriskempson/tomorrow-theme too see how it looks like.

Colour name	R	G	B
Default Foreground	211	208	200
Default Bold Foreground	242	240	236
Default Background	45	45	45
Default Bold Background	116	115	105
Cursor Text	0	0	0
Cursor Colour	252	151	31
ANSI Black	45	45	45
ANSI Black Bold	116	115	105
ANSI Red	242	119	122
ANSI Red Bold	249	145	87
ANSI Green	153	204	153
ANSI Green Bold	102	179	102
ANSI Yellow	255	204	102
ANSI Yellow Bold	255	189	51
ANSI Blue	102	153	204
ANSI Blue Bold	160	159	147
ANSI Magenta	204	153	204
ANSI Magenta Bold	232	230	223
ANSI Cyan	102	204	204
ANSI Cyan Bold	210	123	83
ANSI White	211	208	200
ANSI White Bold	242	240	236

Connection

Data

Flag Use system username in the When username is not specified combo box.

SSH

X11

Flag the Enable X11 forwarding option if you want to launch graphic programs.

Install some X Server for Windows. For example you can use XMing: you need to donate to download the Website release. I used an older release on SourceForge: I flagged the Don’t install an SSH client installer option.

Then start XMing and connect with PuTTY to the remote server: now you can launch any graphic application, try with Xeyes.

Tips

Automate login

It is not considered really secure, but, if you are not paranoic this is a really good tip.

Create a shortcut to Putty, you know, right click on it an send to Desktop. Then right click the shortcut and edit the Target entry adding -pw and -ssh flags with user and hostname arguments, something like

"C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe" -ssh -pw s3cr3t user@server01.example.com

Voilà! Now you can connect just clicking on the shortcut. Even better:

• rename your shortcut as user@hostname argument, for instance user@server01.example.com
• on Windows 8, right click the shortcut and Pin to Start

Now you can access really quickly to your connection: HOST + user@serv ...

See also

• Roll your Windows