PuTTYgen

PuTTYgen is PuTTY’s built-in key workshop. It creates public and private SSH material in the native .ppk layout and supports RSA, DSA, ECDSA, and Ed25519 for SSH-2 (RSA also supports legacy SSH-1). You can convert material for OpenSSH and other stacks. On Windows start PuTTYgen from the Start menu after the MSI; on Linux the puttygen binary typically ships in putty-tools. For a full click path, follow the Hands-on guide here.

What it does

• Generate new key pairs and protect the private half with an optional passphrase.
• Export public and private files; copy the OpenSSH-ready line for authorized_keys.
• Import older keys or convert between .ppk and PEM-style formats.

Typical use

Use PuTTYgen when Windows users need key authentication to servers, cloud VMs, or Git over SSH. Load the private half into Pageant or point PuTTY’s session at it directly. For the wider kit (PSCP, PSFTP, Plink, Pageant), browse the PuTTY main hub or the download hub.

More help

Install options, first SSH login, and PSCP/PSFTP primers live on the Hands-on guide. Builds are offered strictly through this site’s Download builds flow.

Download PuTTY (includes PuTTYgen on Windows)