Quick notes for setting up the Windows OpenSSH server from the OpenSSH-Win64.zip package.

This uses the official Win32-OpenSSH release page: https://github.com/powershell/win32-openssh/releases

• 1. Download OpenSSH-Win64.zip
• 2. Run install-sshd.ps1 in admin mode
• 3. Start the services
• 4. SSH server config path
• 5. Default authorized_keys path for administrators
• 6. Quick checks
• 7. Notes

1. Download OpenSSH-Win64.zip

Download OpenSSH-Win64.zip from:

https://github.com/powershell/win32-openssh/releases

Extract it to a directory such as:

C:\Program Files\OpenSSH-Win64

2. Run install-sshd.ps1 in admin mode

Open PowerShell as Administrator, then enter the extracted directory and run:

cd 'C:\Program Files\OpenSSH-Win64'
.\install-sshd.ps1

This installs the Windows SSH server service.

3. Start the services

Still in the elevated PowerShell session:

# Start the SSH server service
Start-Service sshd

# Optional: Start the Authentication Agent (for key management)
Start-Service ssh-agent

# Set them to start automatically on boot
Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'
Set-Service -Name ssh-agent -StartupType 'Automatic'

4. SSH server config path

The main server config file is:

C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config

5. Default authorized_keys path for administrators

By default, the config uses:

C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys

If you log in as an administrator account, this is the file where your public key is usually placed.

6. Quick checks

Check that the services are installed and running:

Get-Service sshd
Get-Service ssh-agent

Check the configured startup type:

Get-Service sshd | Select-Object Name, Status, StartType
Get-Service ssh-agent | Select-Object Name, Status, StartType

Check that the config directory exists:

Get-ChildItem C:\ProgramData\ssh

7. Notes

• install-sshd.ps1 must be run from an elevated PowerShell session.
• ssh-agent is optional. It is useful when you want Windows to manage private keys for outbound SSH usage.
• If you modify C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config, restart the service to apply changes:

Restart-Service sshd