WinSCP (''Windows Secure Copy'') is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

SSH File Transfer Protocol In computing, the SSH File Transfer Protocol (also known as Secure File Transfer Protocol or SFTP) is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data stream. It was designed by the Inte ...

(SFTP),

File Transfer Protocol The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and da ...

(FTP),

WebDAV WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which allows user agents to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an HTTP web server by providing facilities for con ...

Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...

, and secure copy protocol (SCP) client for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local computer and a remote

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides functionality for other programs or devices, called clients Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending customers and su ...

. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic

file manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or pr ...

and

file synchronization File synchronization (or syncing) in computing is the process of ensuring that computer files in two or more locations are updated via certain rules. In ''one-way file synchronization'', also called mirroring, updated files are copied from a sourc ...

functionality. For secure transfers, it uses the

Secure Shell The Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for operating network services securely over an unsecured network. Its most notable applications are remote login and command-line execution. SSH applications are based ...

protocol (SSH) and supports the SCP protocol in addition to SFTP. Development of WinSCP started around March 2000 and continues. Originally it was hosted by the

University of Economics in Prague The Prague University of Economics and Business (PUEB) (originally: ''the University of Economics, Prague''; '' cs, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, VŠE'') is a triple crown accredited economics and business-oriented public university loc ...

, where its author worked at the time. Since July 16, 2003, it is licensed under the

GNU GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

. It is hosted on

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...

and

GitHub GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, cont ...

. WinSCP is based on the implementation of the SSH protocol from

PuTTY Putty is a material with high plasticity, similar in texture to clay or dough, typically used in domestic construction and repair as a sealant or filler. Although some types of putty (typically those using linseed oil) slowly polymerise and be ...

and FTP protocol from

FileZilla FileZilla is a free and open-source, cross-platform FTP application, consisting of FileZilla Client and FileZilla Server. Clients are available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Both server and client support FTP and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS), while ...

. It is also available as a plugin for

Altap Salamander Altap Salamander (formerly known as ''Servant Salamander'') is a freeware orthodox file manager for Microsoft Windows, originally inspired by Norton Commander. In contrast to several other file managers, it has a ''context aware'' user interface hi ...

, and there exists a third-party plugin for the FAR file manager.

Features

Graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, ins ...

*Translated into several languages *Integration with Windows (

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, it can be used to ...

, URL, shortcut

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most c ...

) *All common operations with files *Support for SFTP and SCP protocols over SSH-1 and SSH-2, FTP protocol,

protocol and

protocol. *Batch file scripting,

command-line interface A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

, and .NET wrapper *Can act as a remote text editor, either downloading a file to edit or passing it on to a local application, then uploading it again when updated. * Directory synchronization in several semi or fully automatic ways *Support for SSH password, keyboard-interactive,

public key Public-key cryptography, or asymmetric cryptography, is the field of cryptographic systems that use pairs of related keys. Each key pair consists of a public key and a corresponding private key. Key pairs are generated with cryptographic al ...

, and Kerberos (GSS) authentication *Integrates with Pageant (

authentication agent) for full support of public key authentication with SSH *Choice of Windows File Explorer-like or

Norton Commander Norton Commander (NC) is a discontinued prototypical orthodox file manager (OFM), written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing (later acquired in 1990 by the Symantec corporation). NC provides a text-based user interface for m ...

-like interfaces *Optionally stores session information *Optionally import session information from PuTTY sessions in the registry *Able to upload files and retain associated original date/timestamps, unlike FTP clients Apart from the standard package, three portable versions are also available: A generic package and two customized versions for LiberKey and PortableApps.com. The portable version runs on

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented grapes. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different ...

on several

POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming in ...

-compliant operating systems, such as

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

, and BSD. Some older versions of the WinSCP installer included OpenCandy advertising module or bundled

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, ...

. Since version 5.5.5 (August 2014) the installer does not contain any advertisement.

References

External links

*
Documentation
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winscp Cryptographic software Data synchronization Free file managers Free file transfer software Free FTP clients Free multilingual software Free software programmed in C++ Orthodox file managers Portable software SSH File Transfer Protocol clients Utilities for Windows Windows-only free software

Features

See also

References

External links