Enabling SSH on your Windows PC

To connect via a secure connection, you need to prepare your Windows PC and install a SSH server. 

Note: Before proceeding, make sure that your Windows installation is up to date.

Windows 10

Since Windows 10, Microsoft offers OpenSSH as an optional installation. This makes things much easier but there are a few steps to go through in order to install the server.

Instructions

Start a powershell prompt as administrator and execute the following command to see if it's installed already:

Get-WindowsCapability -Online | ? Name -like 'OpenSSH*'

You should see something like:

Name  : OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent
Name  : OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent

The client part is not required. If the server part is NotPresent, install it with this command:

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0

You should see something like:

Path          :
Online        : True
RestartNeeded : False

Start the OpenSSH server and make sure it starts up automatically. 

Start-Service sshd
Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType 'Automatic'

The setup automatically creates a firewall rule to allow OpenSSH. Check to make sure it is actually created.

Get-NetFirewallRule -Name *ssh*

Open the settings for the VNC server installed on your PC and make sure that loopback connections are enabled.

You should now be able to use your Windows username and password in the Secure Connection section of your saved connection.

Windows 8 or earlier

On earlier Windows versions, you will need to install a 3rd party SSH server. In this article, we will show how to configure freeSSHd but Screens should work with any properly configured SSH server.

Instructions

Download freeSSHd and launch the installer.

When asked to create private keys, click Yes.

When asked whether freeSSHd should run as a service, click Yes.

In the Windows task bar, double-click the VNC icon to display the settings window.

Select the User tab and click the Add button.

A User Properties window appears.

Enter a username.

Set the Authorization to Password stored as SHA1 hash.

Enter a secure password.

Enable only the tunneling option.

Click OK.

Select the SSH tab.

Note: By default, the SSH port will be set to 22, but it's possible that another app installed on your PC is already using that port. If so, you may change the port to something else, like port 222 in our example.

Select the Tunneling tab.

Enable Allow local port forwarding.

Click OK.

If an error occurs when connecting through a SSH tunnel with freeSSHd, open the VNC server settings on the Windows PC you’re trying to connect to and enable Allow loopback connections.

If the Windows Firewall -- or any other software firewall -- is running, make sure that freeSSHd is allowed to receive incoming connections.

You should now be able to use your Windows username and password in the Secure Connection section of your saved connection.