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I’m thrilled to share that a Beta OpenSSH client and server daemon are available as a Feature-on-Demand in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and Windows Server 1709. Since our last update blog, we’ve been working hard on a Win32 port of OpenSSH and working closely with members of the OpenSSH Portable and OpenBSD projects with the eventual goal of bringing Win32 support upstream into OpenSSH.
As using and configuring an SSH shell is very easy on any Linux or macOS machine, these operating systems have been a popular choice among developers and sysadmins. In recent times, Microsoft has tried to change its attire and tried to lure developers with the help of new features like Bash on Ubuntu on Windows 10.It’s not hidden that the experience of usinga terminal-based software on Windows isn’t as good as doing the same on a *NIX machine. To make things better, Microsoft has added a Windows 10 OpenSSH Client and OpenSSH Server application.
I spotted this development on a Ycombinator Hacker News discussion on a link from ServeTheHome. As per PowerShell’s Project Manager, all this work is being done in open source out of a fork. Microsoft is also working closely with official OpenSSH Portable maintainers.
Windows 10 OpenSSH client: Enabling and Installation
Currently, built-in OpenSSH software for Windows 10 is in Beta. It works well, and you can give it a try to connect to a remote SSH server and gain access. Here’s how to enable it on your Windows 10 PC:
1. Get latest Windows 10 version
It goes without saying that you need to have your Windows 10 operating system updated to get this feature. I had Windows 10 Version 1709, also known as Fall Creators Update, running on my machine.
2. Enable Developer Mode
The next step should be to enable Developer Mode on Windows 10 to get the latest features. You can find this option in Update & Security section in Settings.
3. Open Manage Optional Features
To open this setting, search in Start Menu search box for Manage optional features and click on it. A new window will open as shown below.
4. Click on Add a features
You’ll be able to spot the + button in the above Setting with text Add a feature. This will open a new screen with available new features. You need to scroll below to find OpenSSH Client and OpenSSH Server. Select the desired package and click Install. This will continue the installation in the background. Once finished, restart your PC.
5. Use OpenSSH on Windows 10
After the installation is completed, open the command prompt and start using OpenSSH client. To do so, type ssh and hit enter. This will show the following result. Now, feel free to use it on your PC.
That was all about how to enable new OpenSSH client on Windows 10. I’m assuming that you’re already aware of SSH and how to configure the same. Do give it a try and share your feedback with us.
Also Read: What Is “Near Share” In Windows 10? How To Share Files Wirelessly Without 3rd-Party Software?
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SSH is one of the most important tools in the *NIX world, through which users communicate with shells, applications, and services running on remote machines, devices, VM’s and containers. Windows users most often remotely access Windows machines, devices, VM’s and Containers via the amazingly powerful Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) which, as the name says, remotes the entire Windows UX.
But sometimes you only want to access & drive command-line tools – for which, RDP is both overkill and a poor fit. For this reason, PowerShell users use PowerShell Remoting which offers similar features to SSH, but via a different communications protocol (based on WinRM), and also requires that the remote system is running Windows PowerShell, which many non-Windows systems do not run (… yet! 😜).
However, many Windows users want/need to access, operate, and/or administer remote UNIX/Linux environments and often have to seek out 3rd party alternatives if they want to SSH into remote machines.
Until now, that is!
Windows 10 Insider builds & Windows Server now include a beta release of the OpenSSH client and server for you to try! Each are available as independent optional features that you can choose to install if you want to be able to employ SSH from the Windows command-line.
For full details of OpenSSH on Windows, along with instructions on how to enable it, and examples of how to use it, please spend a few minutes reading Joey Aiello’s great announcement post!
Again, note that this is a beta release, and that you should expect issues and incomplete features, but the team would love to hear your feedback, and even your assistance via the Win32-OpenSSH GitHub hosted project!