How To Update PuTTY – And Save Your Sessions
The following guide is how to update the PuTTY client on your Microsoft Windows PC.
You may have tried to just install the latest version, in the hope that it will just update, like any other program, well this may not work. You might have to uninstall the current version and then reinstall the new version.
First thing to note is that all your PuTTY saved sessions are located in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Simontatham there is various posts online that say you need to back this up in order to update PuTTY this is incorrect. You only need to back this up if you wish to move your PuTTY saved sessions from one PC to another.
Update Procedure
To uninstall PuTTY go to “Add or remove programs”
Locate PuTTY and select “Uninstall”
You will now be prompted with the following message, in order to keep all your saved sessions you need to click “No”
Once this has progressed you will get a message to say that uninstall has compleated ok.
You can now install the latest version of PuTTY.
You can download the latest version of PuTTY here :-
https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html
Post updated – April 2024
Duncan is a technology professional with over 20 years experience of working in various IT roles. He has a interest in cyber security, and has a wide range of other skills in radio, electronics and telecommunications.