PuTTY Connection Manager vs SuperPuTTY Detailed Comparison

If you are confused whether you have to choose PuTTY Connection Manager or SuperPuTTY, here we will give you the difference between them. You will know the features of PuTTY Connection Manager and also SupperPuTTY. So, just read the explanation below.

PuTTY Connection Manager

PuTTY Connection Manager or PuTTYCM has the ability to show a lot of PuTTY sessions in tabs. This is the best feature that you will like. You are allowed to open multiple putty sessions in one tab and it is like you open multiple text files in notepad++. If you want to make it run smoothly, you have to set some settings. First, you have to go to Tools and then choose Options. After that, you need to choose the check box Enable Additional Timing For PuTTY Capture (ms) and then set the value to >=500ms. It will open the PuTTY window in the tab.

PuTTYCM

Having the ability to show different PuTTY sessions in panels is another feature of PuTTY Connection Manager. It will permit you to be able to view a lot of sessions at a time. The third feature that you are able to enjoy from PuTTY Connection Manager is that PuTTY Connection Manager has a multi command sender. You are able to run the similar command on a lot of servers with one shot. It will save a lot of time specially for system administrators. We can say that it is yet another pretty feature but yet more dangerous in PuTTYCM except if you use it cautiously. You have to make sure that you run the right command before you hit Enter or it will become a big mess. If you want to use this feature, you must open dockable windows and then you must choose on which servers you want to run a single command.

Another feature of PuTTY Connection Manager is encrypted PuTTY configuration database. It is important for you to know that PuTTY session information is saved in the windows registry by default which is not encrypted. To keep the session information encrypted, you are able to use the database encryption feature which can be found in the PuTTYCM.

Automatic PuTTY Session Login also can be enjoyed by you in PuTTY Connection Manager. If you have made a secure PuTTY session, you are able to set up automatic login for example you are able to save the uid/pwd for the individual PuTTY session in the secure database. If you double click on a certain secure PuTTY session, it will automatically login.

From the putty-secure-sessions database, you have to choose a particular PuTTY session and then you have to right click and choose Configuration. After that, you have to click on the Enable Macro check. From the similar PuTTY session configuration window, you have to click on the Login Macro from the left-side menu and then enter the uid/pwd. If you double click on that certain PuTTY session, you will see that it will do the login automatically using the credentials that you have provided.

PuTTY session post-login commands is also a feature in PuTTY CM. It means that you are able to set up a post-login command which will get executed automatically after you login. You are able to do the setup of a post-login command under the similar Login Macro screen under the Post-Login Command section. You have to click on the Enable Post-Login Commands check box and then you are able to set a total of 5 post login commands.

In addition to the features that we have explained above, PuTTY Connection also has the other features as you are able to see in the list below.

  • You have the ability to choose multiple themes.
  • You are able to import and export PuTTY sessions.
  • PuTTYMC comes as a standalone executable which is able to be launched directly from a USB thumb drive.
  • PuTTY Connection Manager is a freeware.

SuperPuTTY

SuperPuTTY

Now, how about SuperPuTTY? It is a Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based Windows application which is primary employed for tab management for PuTTY SSH clients. The GUI-based application SuperPuTTY is licensed under MIT’s license for software and it is known as the X11 license. Because it has this license, the program is available for commercial and non-commercial operations. You are able to run SupperPuTTY on all Windows operating systems which can support .Net Framework 3.5 or newer versions.

According to the Unixmantra site, it is almost the same as PuTTY CM. Besides, it can use PuTTY as the back-end program to process. You are able to use different tabs in the similar window and it permits you to be able to see multiple connections.

What are the features of SuperPuTTY? You are able to see the features of SuperPuTTY below.

  • Docking user interface will permit personalized workspace and managing a lot of PuTTY sessions easy.
  • It has export and import session configuration.
  • You are able to upload files securely using the SCP or SFTP protocols.
  • It has layouts.
  • It can support PuTTY session configuration including Private Keys.
  • It has the ability to support SSH, Rlogin, Telnet and RAW protocols.
  • It can support local shells through MinTTY or puttycyg.
  • It can support KiTTY.

If you want to install SuperPuTTY, it is very easy because it comes with an installer. It is packaged as a ZIP file so that you need to unzip the downloaded application to where you need to save it on the local disk. It is suggested that the program is unzipped to a directory which retains the version number of the application as it follows a semantic version numbering system.

According to Puttygen site, based on the version you downloads, the extracted files can look as these:

  • SuperPutty.exe
  • License.txt
  • README.txt
  • SuperPuTTY.exe.config
  • log4net.dll
  • WeifenLuo.WinFormsUI.Docking.dll
  • SuperPutty.pdb
  • ReleaseNotes.txt
  • Themes

Well, that’s the difference between PuTTY Connection Manager and SuperPuTTY. Hopefully, this information can help you to choose between PuTTY Connection Manager and SuperPuTTy or to know the features of them. Thank you for reading this article and if you need more information about IT and Windows, you are able to read the other articles on this site. Just search the information that you need and then read it.