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Once i have entered a session, saved it and used it, then the next time I run putty the session is not there.
I checked the putty.reg file and upon exit is does contain my session, but after starting putty and exiting it has gone.
Am I missing something?
I guess this will be similar to portaputty (http://socialistsushi.com/portaputty) - which doesn't use the registry, so are you planning on introducing the other putty apps into the same distribution, or just sticking with putty?
What OS are you using? It doesn't work with Wine as Wine's registry handling abilities aren't quite up to snuff yet. Also, are you starting it with PuTTYPortable.exe each time? What kind of account (admin, limited, guest) are you using?
Ideally, I'd like to get a switch into PuTTY allowing us to pass a command line to use config files.
I am using Windows XP and have an admin account.
I do start it with PuTTYPortable.exe each time via PStart menu app (I am waiting for directory structures on PortableAppsMenu before switching as I have a lot of apps). It does create the .reg file following a session, but seems to overwrite it when a new session is started.
Using portaputty via PStart works fine, but sessions are stored differently.
Can you run it directly from PuTTYPortable.exe a couple times and see if it works then? Then we can at least eliminate whether PStart is the issue (perhaps with a working directory problem or something similar). It's been tested and works fine with PortableApps.com Menu.
I tried that and it didnt work. It also doesnt work for me via PortableApps menu.
I also tried just creating saved machine IP addresses without connecting to them. They had all disappeared upon restart.
Does it try and run the .reg file at startup? If so i could try and see if i have a registry problem. The .reg file seems ok when I close a session (after saving some addresses).
I've the same problem here! Windows 2000 as admin user, though. The .reg file seems to be cleared everytime you start the program, via menu or directly, doesn't matter.
The way it works is this:
1. Launcher checks to see if PuTTY is already running. If it is, it presents an error.
2. Launcher moves the existing registry keys from this key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham
to this one:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham-BackupByPuTTYPortable
3. The launcher then loads the putty.reg key into the registry... at which point your settings should be within that first key.
4. It then runs putty.exe.
5. On exit, it saves your settings back to putty.reg and then restores the original PuTTY keys.
That's a bit simplified as there are some other mutual exclusion things going on to allow you to launch the portable one twice without messing things up.
You can fire up RegEdit at different points to see what's going on. You're not using an INI file are ya?
Other than that, the only thing I can think of is a misbehaving antivirus or antispyware program.
Ok. looks like the problem occurs when you dont have a putty entry in the registry. I ran the .reg file (empty of sessions) before startup and it now works.
I've got a fix posted. Please replace your PuTTYPortable.exe launcher with this one:
...test release removed in favor of new official release
After folks confirm it's working well, I'll repost the PuTTY Portable package.
I deleted the registry entry. Started OK with my saved sessions (from before). I added a new one and restarted and it was there.
Looks like its fixed for me.
This bug is fixed in the new release:
https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/putty_portable
Works fine now!
For me it isn't working yet..
When I start up PuTTY Portable and add a session it seems to save on the right way. But if you quit the program and restart it, everything is gone.
OS: Vista x64
If I can offer any assistance with testing, just ask 
Would be great if this would be working stable
You have rev 2 yet? Also not sure about the 64 bit part... and have no way to test this.
Rev 2 works for me with or without PuTTY locally on Win95 through Vista (32 bit)
Yes already got Rev2, didn't change a thing
Ok, I've reproduced the error. And I can confirm it is a conflict with Vista's annoying User Access Control system. (the thing that pops up messages asking "are you sure you want to do everything?") At the moment, there is no workaround. I'm sticking a note about compatibility on the app page.
Side note: This is yet another example of why I don't recommend anyone use Vista on production systems yet.
You're right, I'm using Vista Ultimate and it only pulls up some of the sessions unless I right click on the PortablePutty.exe and select "Run as administrator", in which case all my sessions load in the list. I would think the application would need to be able to run as administrator by default to make it work correctly in Vista but I'm not sure if it's possible to do that in the program itself as this would defeat the purpose of UAC. I am considering downgrading to XP as I hate UAC and have disabled it on my system... still it causes problems. Thank you John for working on this. I would be happy to help test any fixes you are working on for this. I think it would be wonderfull if PuTTY itself would store session info as PortaPuTTY does to make things easier for all of us.
Ultimately, the registry.dll module in NSIS needs to be updated to work differently on Vista. I know how to do it, but my C skills aren't up to snuff. I have a friend that may be able to assist.
Otherwise, I have an NSIS-based workaround that I can do in script. It'll add some complexity and size to the launcher, though, which I'd like to avoid.
I guess the problem is when you restore the save-session to registry the putty.exe must be wait the process finish!
I modify the source with follow:
RestoreSettings:
IfFileExists "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\putty.reg" "" SetRandomSeedPath
${registry::RestoreKey} "$SETTINGSDIRECTORY\putty.reg" $R0
Sleep 10000
;=== add sleep 10000 for wait finish
and recompile the PuTTYPortable.nsi
now it work's fine for me.
It's a UAC problem on Vista. It will fail due to the fact that the registry.dll plugin in NSIS uses regedit.exe to import registry keys. This file cannot be run by other apps if you're not setting it to run as admin. Mind you, this doesn't actually but you any security as there are other ways to import a .reg file that DO work without admin set. Just a dumb decision on Microsoft's part.
Have you seen the new Mac OSX ads, especially the one about the security?
----
Ryan McCue
Current Fav. Songs:
I did that and now all my entries load. I switched back to XP for now too.
Ok, I've been toying with a new method of dealing with the registry under Vista and I think I have it working as expected. This new test launcher will try to restore a registry key as usual. If it fails, it will use a special method just for Vista that works with the UAC. If that fails, it will remember that it failed and not overwrite your saved settings in the putty.reg on exit, so that when you get back to another PC that works as expected, it will work correctly and still have your settings.
Get launcher 1.3.4:
https://portableapps.com/temp/PuTTYPortable.exe
Is there a way to have PuTTYPortable save your settings with a non-admin account on Windoxs XP?
It uses the registry within HKEY_CURRENT_USER where the current account is allowed to make changes. It doesn't impact the machine or other users, so it's allowed on nonadmin accts.
Hi,
I use PuTTY to manage systems in my data centre, where we have over 100 systems. I exported putty.reg from my non-portable setup, and copied it across to the PuTTY Portable folder. When I started PuTTY, it showed a few saved sessions. Connecting to one of those, and then launching a second session showed all the saved sessions. Restarting only shows four or five sessions until I do the load / save routine.
I have just tried launching it twice without doing anything else, and the second session gets all the saved entries! To me this looks like it is a timing problem - the registry hasn't finished being loaded when the "real" app starts (but then, what do I know 
)
I have (apparently) the latest PuTTYPortable.exe which reports it's version as 1.3.3.0 and was installed from the 0.59 RV2 link.
I'm using WinXP Pro with all the latest security fixes and service packs, on a Dell Latitude D520 with Centrino core 2 duo and 1GB RAM (if this is any help)
Cheers
Smotsie
the 1.3.4 Launcher from 3 posts ago.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard P. Feynman
Just re-read the posts and found the link. It works for me now. I stupidly assumed that the PuTTY front-page link would include the latest software.
Cheers
Smotsie
Putty is relatively new here and it is not used by so many people like for example Firefox so it takes more time to find the unusual bugs.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard P. Feynman
I'm still having a problem with saved profiles, using 0.59 R2 on Windows XP, and I do have admin rights. I'm a Unix system admin, heavy putty user and I know it well, I've been using it for 5 or more years by now. I saved my putty registry hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham to a .reg file on disk then ran putty portable and checked the default putty.reg created then copied my full config file into that.
When I start putty up (not using the portable menu, just putty_portable.exe) I only see Default and my first 4 custom profiles. I loaded an existing profile from among the first five, then put in a new name zzz and clicked save, and all my profiles came visible. I exited putty and restarted it, and I'm back to only seeing Default and my first 4 custom profiles unless I load and save again. At this time, I do see the zzz profile I saved earlier so it's saving, just not displaying when start the app.
I tried exporting my registry hive out again and then deleting it right out of the registry, no change I still only see Deafult and the first four profiles. This is not such a big deal to me as I can install putty, but I would like to be able to take PuttyPortable on a flash drive with all my settings.
While John is working on the fix, you can try this. Fire up putty twice. The second instance should have all the saved sessions listed.
That seems to work for me, loading up two PuTTYs, but if i close them both then all my settings are lost... using Vista 32 bit with UAC if it helps.
I've the same problem on all Vista PCs. So I use the PuTTY version for storing configuration into file from http://jakub.kotrla.net/putty/ .
The issue with it not reloading all sessions and having UAC problems on Vista is fixed in the 0.60 release.
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