PuTTY Windows Phone port currently in development, bringing the SSH client to the small screen

By Rich Edmonds
last updated

PuTTY (www.greenend.org.uk) is a popular telnet/SSH client for Windows, enabling those with remote access to servers and devices to connect and perform an array of tasks through the terminal or command line interface. A developer has taken to Reddit to announce that he's currently at work on porting the PuTTY Windows client to Windows Phone.

While numerous apps are already available for Windows Phone that support SSH, it'll be good to see such a popular Windows client be brought across to the mobile world. No ETA has been provided, but a screenshot has been teased and we're stoked to finally be able to use PuTTY while on the move.

If you're not a system administrator or own an installation where SSH is required to connect, PuTTY isn't really for you and this article will most likely float way over your head. For those who would be interested in the SSH solution, the developer working on this project has announced on Reddit that the base code of PuTTY has been successfully ported to Windows Phone 8 (no Windows Phone 7 support, folks).

The above image shows the app screenshot that was shared on Reddit, illustrating connecting and "SSH handshaking" both working successfully. The first feature on-screen you'll notice is the keyboard. It looks rather odd, right? That's because there are numerous keys that have been added, which are required to efficiently use an SSH client. While we all love the standard Windows Phone text input, there's simply not enough covered when it comes to connecting to and managing a remote server.

If you'd like to get involved in the future beta, be sure to drop the developer a line (putty@nogsnet.com). The best part about this Windows Phone port is the developer plans to release the app for free with a donation option. Kiss those over-priced clients goodbye! While Justin Timberlake's bringing sexy back, PuTTY for Windows Phone is bringing SSH back. Yeah!

Source: Reddit; thanks, interopbyt, for the tip!

Rich Edmonds
Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds is Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him over on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

63 Comments
  • First. Can I haz cookie? P.s this is awesome
  • You can haz cookie. Than we must remove your account privileges, I'm afraid, and ban you from our network. Now who's first? Muahaha! ;-)
  • Not me! :( (low blow)
  • It's easy! Just require a VPN connection first and no WP will be able to use PuTTY on your servers...
  • oh stop. VPN is probably going to show up before PuTTY does
  • Why do you say that?
  • just a hunch and based on exp, it usually takes 3~6 month after public announcement before things show up, and im betting on windows blue for that :P
  • Totally get where you are coming from. However, I'm the developer writing this app ;) I can't promise any time frames, but I am hoping that the beta will be ready the end of this month.
  • that would be awsome, thanks :)
  • Brilliant! Its now August 2014 and still neither have turned up.  And if you call that shambles option in WP8.1 VPN, it really isn:t.  How can it be without support for PPTP or SSTP (i.e most common VPN protocols)?
  • This is good news. I've been using The SSH Client but the cursors are not available in the free edition.
  • I sprung for the Pro (paid) edition of The SSH Client -- it was just too useful for me to pass up.  It's been well worth the cost, though I'm not disappointed to see PuTTY coming soon....
  • Sam here, makes my xbmc/openelec management a charm, without having to pick up my lappy. Is there a good app for surface rt too?
  • Do you know if the SSH Client has the option to enlarge the font?
  • I use this at work. I can't wait to see it.
  • Would be more useful for me if VPN was added to WP8...nonetheless A worthy addition
  • Same here. all this will do is let me work when walking around but it would be more useful if I could use when out of the office.
  • Ditto. I would also like to see this on WinRT, because I just paid $7.99 for a decent SSH client (SSH-RT) and miss my PuTTY which I live in all day at work. But, PuTTY does no good if I am already at work, so WP8 needs to really connect with Enterprise and IT folk and either bring VPN back, or get Citrix moving on some remote desktop clients for WP8.
  • I have been hounding Citrix for last couple of weeks about when the WP8 client will drop. there latest update is it will be submitted to MS Store in the coming days (that was last week). So I again today asked when.
  • I think this is the best news ever.
  • About time, excellent news!
  • ls -awesome
  • At last! Currently "The SSH Client" is the only viable solution, but it smashes irssi's ui all the time. 
    I want it, NOW! Then I could really think my 920 finally gets some form of use.
  • This is awesome!! I love PuTTY! Now for Nokia's phablet and I'll be very happy! :D Is PuTTY out for WIndows RT yet?
  • Let me Google that for you: http://www.windows-arm.com/index.php/desktop-apps-for-windows-rt/699-put...
  • http://tinyurl.com/lhn6s27
  • Really good news!
  • This is cool.  Probably won't use it on my phone as I need a vpn connection to log into my devices but the more apps the better.
  • This really is awesome. Except for a stable Facebook message client, this is the only app I was missing in WP before making the jump from Android.
  • Facebook messaging is built in to the platform's messaging system and is pretty stable. No real need for another client
  • But it doesn't sync with older messages, so, if you miss a notification (and you miss a lot of them for unknown reasons), you won't be able to read the whole conversation without using the app.
  • True, in those instances you just dive into the Facebook app
  • This needs to be in Windows store too.
  • Very nice to see this to increase the power user side of wp
  • That's great news
  • hell yes.
  • As much as I want this for my 920 I need it more for my Surface. Hopefully they are also developing a version for the Windows Store.
  • Its quite amusing to think one can now do HPC virtually anywhere with the phone in your pocket!
  • Where can I get the keyboard shown in the picture
  • Read the article :)
  • I want just the keyboard not the app, I have almost no idea what PuTTY is
  • Most excellent news.
  • Can't wait, I've found the other ones a bit shoddy.
  • Awesome news. Although putty is a big reason why I enjoyed phones with physical keyboards in the past. Having the keyboard cover 90% of your ssh screen can make it difficult. I used some client back on WinMo that was nice.
  • Its awesome
  • I've used putty nearly every day for over a decade, but on the phone I use Token2shell.  It has a few features designed to make using ssh from the phone a bit less miserable.
  • I tried that, but it's so... weird. I never understood it. What does the scanning feature do? What do you like about it? It also annoys the heck out of me that the entire terminal moves around... just set the term size to the screen dammit!
  • Yeah, I have no idea why it has a barcode reader, unless it's for some login system that I've never heard of.  What I like about it is the keyboard setup, the way the function and cursor keys are mapped right onto the phone screen and you don't have to shuffle through keyboard pages to find them.
     
  • Definitely good news, I use PuTTY everyday!!
  • Awesome sauce.
  • I would love to see an RDP solution on Windows Phone without installing third party software on the remote computer. That would be awesome.
  • That exists. All the RDP clients. In fact by definition, RDP does not use 3rd party software host side, unless you run linux....
  • seriously, ms just needs to port their RT RDP app.
  • SO much win. This will be very handy for me.
  • Super duper news for people like us, The network engineers.
  • WOW! Erm, hi. I'm the developer from reddit that is currently working on this project. I was just sent a link to this article from a friend with the caption "Hey! You're famous!". 
    Really glad the community is looking forward to this app. It's not officially decided but I am considering making it donationware simply because it is more important to me that WP8 users have a decent SSH client than making money from an app. I would have liked to include WP7.x support but unfortunately it would mean rewritting PuTTY from the group up.
    AMA :D
  • Amazing.
  • So looking forward to this
  • I'm dreaming windows phone can run windows apps... Like running CMD, and blah blah blah.
  • awesome! been waiting for a good free ssh client for WP in ages.. i use SecureCRT a lot on my pc.
  • It has been almost 6 months but the app still has not been published in the Windows Phone Store.  Has this promised app become vaporware?
  • If you've not spotted it yet, its now in closed beta. Drop an email to putty@nogsnet.com to be added to the list
  • "Why are we (still) waiting? ..."