Generate A Public Windows Ssh Key
SSH, the secure shell, is often used to access remote Linux systems. But its authentication mechanism, where a private local key is paired with a public remote key, is used to secure all kinds of online services, from GitHub and Launchpad to Linux running on Microsoft’s Azure cloud.
Generating Public and Private Keys with openssl.exe To perform the following actions for Windows or Linux, you must have OpenSSL installed on your system. Generating the Private Key - Windows In Windows: 1. Open the Command Prompt (Start Programs Accessories Command Prompt). Navigate to the following folder. To generate the public/private key pair, enter this in the Command Prompt: ssh-keygen At the first prompt, “Enter file in which to save the key,” press Enter to save it in the default location.
Generating these keys from Linux is easy, and thanks to Ubuntu on Windows, you can follow the same process from Windows 10. But even without Ubuntu, SSH keys can also be generated with the free and open source Windows application, PuTTy
Over the following few steps, we’ll guide you through the process of generating SSH keys using both Ubuntu on Windows and PuTTY.
Requirements
All you need is a PC running Windows 10 and either of the following installed:
- The
puttygen.exe
executable from PuTTY
Generate A Public Key Windows 8
If you don’t already have Ubuntu on Windows, take a look at our Install Ubuntu on Windows 10 tutorial.