Setup Pageant to run at Startup

When using Putty on Windows and you need SSH connectivity without passwords, the user uses Pageant to load the private key. This article shows how you an automate this process by using a user startup shortcut.

⚠️ This will only work when the user logs onto the machine and not generally suitable for background services.
  1. Launch Windows Run prompt and open shell:startup
  2. Create a shortcut by right-clicking in the folder and browse in the executable of Pageant.

  1. Edit the Properties of the Shortcut, by appending the location of the private key to the Target, as shown below. If there are multiple private keys, just append them one after the other. 
    
"C:\Program Files\PuTTY\pageant.exe" "C:\path\to\privatekey1.ppk" "C:\path\to\privatekey2.ppk"

Pagent SSH Authentication is now installed and will run automatically when user logs on.