StamPuTTY: PuTTY "Default Session" settings sync

A lightweight Windows utility built in Go to help you stop repeating yourself. If you’ve ever changed your "Default Settings" in PuTTY (like switching to a high-contrast theme or a larger font) and realized none of your saved sessions inherited those changes, this tool is for you.

Note: This tool modifies HKEY_CURRENT_USER. No Administrator privileges are required, but it's always a good idea to export a backup of your PuTTY registry branch before performing updates:

reg export "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions" "PuTTYSessionsBackup.reg"

️The "Don't Break My SSH" Guarantee

Directly editing the Windows Registry can be spicy. To keep your workflow safe, this app automatically excludes sensitive session-specific keys from being overwritten:

• Hostnames & IP Addresses
• Usernames
• SSH Private Key paths
• Proxy Credentials

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Features

• Session Discovery: Automatically finds all saved PuTTY sessions in your Registry.
• The "Diff" Engine: Select a session on the left to see exactly how it differs from your Default Settings.
• Granular Control: Use checkboxes to pick exactly which settings (colors, fonts, scrolling behavior) you want to sync.
• Batch Update: Apply changes to the Registry with a single click.
• Safety First: A "Cancel" button to reset your pending changes before you commit.

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How to Use

1. Launch the App: You'll see your sessions listed in the left sidebar.
2. Select a Session: Click "Production-DB" or whatever you've named your connection.
3. Compare: The right pane will populate with a list of settings where your session differs from the "Default Settings."
4. To see all the settings instead of only the changed ones, just in case, check the "Show unchanged settings" checkbox.
5. Mark for Change: Check the boxes for the settings you want to update (e.g., FontHeight or Colour2), or hit Select All to select all diferent settings (not recommended).
6. Apply changes: Hit Apply to write the selected Default Settings values into that specific session's Registry entry.

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Building yourself

You need to have a Go 1.25+ environment set up.

Since tailscale/walk requires a Windows Manifest to use modern common controls, you’ll need to generate a .syso file before building:

go tool rsrc -manifest stamputty.manifest -o rsrc.syso

Then build the app:

go build -ldflags="-H windowsgui" -o StamPuTTY.exe

Cross-platform build: if you know what cross-platform building in Go is, you know how to do it. You will need to generate platform-specific .syso files for each target platform, ex.:

go tool rsrc -manifest stamputty.manifest -arch arm64 -o rsrc_windows_arm64.syso

(and, of course, remove the catch-all rsrc.syso file)

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Acknowledgments

• Simon Tatham: For creating and maintaining PuTTY, the indispensable tool this utility was built to support.
• The PuTTY Team: For their decades of work on the suite of tools we all rely on.
• This project is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the official PuTTY project.

ToDo

• Automate releases with GitHub actions, including building binaries
• Annotate some cryptic settings, like WTF is Colour0 or Colour5?
• Custom icon
• Localization?

License

MIT