Windows gets support for ssh

PowerShell in Windows gets support for OpenSSH. Microsoft has announced that. Exactly what the functionality looks like and whether both the server and client versions are supported is not yet completely clear.

Support for ssh in PowerShell can potentially mean that a Windows server can be controlled remotely over ssh, for example from a Linux desktop. Also, Windows users without third party software like Putty could connect to OpenSSH servers.

It is not clear from Microsoft’s announcement whether this is actually possible, or whether both client and server support will be built in. Microsoft does hint: the company writes that support for ssh in PowerShell would ensure that Linux servers “can be managed via ssh, and vice versa.”

In addition to the uncertainty about the exact functionality, it is also not yet known when ssh support will be introduced. The functionality may be included with Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016, but that’s not certain; it could also be that ssh support will be added to older Windows versions with an update. Microsoft itself also promises to contribute to the OpenSSH project.

In the announcement, the PowerShell team wrote that two previous attempts to build ssh into Windows, but both implementations were rejected. Because of the ‘changes in leadership and culture’, the company would now give it another try. Virtually every other operating system has built-in support for ssh.