Historically, Windows has never natively provided users with an SSH client. And this has led to Windows users needing to look for tools like PuTTY or the SSH Client. These were 3rd-party tools that allow users to connect to servers that require secure connections.
Starting in the Windows 10 Fall 2018 build, Windows 10 now comes with a built-in ssh client. For sure, 3rd-party tools like PuTTY will still be popular because they provide ways to create site profiles and save passwords – but for users that periodically need to connect to a secure server – this is really handy.
How can you find it? It’s easy – Open the command prompt: cmd. You can call the ssh command directly from here using the ssh command. And the command has a number of options – type ssh -h and you get the following window:
Lots of options. Probably the most useful is the -l [that’s a dash + lower-case “L”] command. This sets the login name. So, if I needed to connect to a server – I would use the following:
>>ssh [server] -l [username]
This will enable the Windows command window to work more like a traditional terminal window. In fact, one of the things Windows 10 has added over the past year through a partnership with Ubuntu is a Unix subsystem. This makes it possible to run many UNIX tools within the Windows environment — but that is likely a post for another time.
–tr
