Follow these steps if you use PuTTY and its authentication agent (Pageant) instead of Windows’ built-in OpenSSH client. For example, if you use SourceTree as your Git client, it comes with PuTTY (and Pageant) to use instead of OpenSSH.
Make sure you’ve installed the PuTTY suite, which includes Pageant. If it’s not installed, its download link is available at https://www.putty.org/.
Check if you have any existing SSH keys. Refer to the GitHub Docs article, Checking for existing SSH keys.
If you don’t have an SSH key:
Follow these steps to load keys and passphrases automatically on Windows:
.ppk
extension, then click Open.You might have configured Git already to use PuTTY’s plink.exe
program. To check if Git uses Pageant when using SSH keys:
GIT_SSH_COMMAND
environment variable. If not, create it.plink.exe
file. By default, this location is "C:\Program Files\PuTTY\plink.exe"
. Important: If the path includes spaces, make sure you enclose the value in quotation marks.To load private keys automatically on Startup:
Open the Start Menu and right-click Pageant.
Select More > Open file location. A File Explorer window opens.
Right-click Pageant and select Properties. The Pageant Properties window opens.
Update the Target field by appending the full paths of the private keys you want to load on startup. Separate each key with a space. Example:
"C:\Program Files\PuTTY\pageant.exe" "C:\Users\user1\myKeys\privatekey.ppk"
Select Apply then select OK.
Test your configuration by opening a command line and running a git
command in your repository, to make sure you can complete the operation without prompts for your passphrase.
When Pageant is running and you enter your passphrase, you can use the Unity Package Manager to fetch packages from that Git repository over SSH using your passphrase-protected SSH key.
The next time Pageant starts, it prompts you for the passphrase, if it’s passphrase-protected.
To load Pageant automatically when Windows starts, refer to the Microsoft Support article, Add an app to run automatically at startup in Windows 10.