Keyboard Mappings and Shortcuts for Operating PuTTY
A comprehensive, doc-based guide to keyboard shortcuts in the Windows SSH client “PuTTY.” This article compiles shortcuts that streamline remote work—covering copy & paste, scrolling, session management, and more.
Posted at: 2025.10.22
Table Of Contents
Basic Operations
PuTTY's key mappings have some quirks, as they differ from typical Windows OS shortcuts and standard application shortcuts.
Most notably, copy and paste operations work differently than in conventional applications: text is copied by selecting it with the mouse, and pasted with a right-click—a unique approach. Scrolling operations and PageUp key behavior also differ from what users might expect, which can be confusing at first. Take your time and start by learning the most frequently used keys.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Copy text | |
| Paste text | Shift+ INSERT/Right Click |
| Open context menu | CtrlRight Click |
| Scroll up in scrollback | Shift |
| Scroll down in scrollback | Shift |
| Scroll up one line | Ctrl |
| Scroll down one line | Ctrl |
| Jump to top of scrollback | CtrlShift |
| Jump to bottom of scrollback | CtrlShift |
| Full-screen mode | AltEnter |
| Send Break signal | Ctrl |
| Open new window with same session | CtrlN |
| Reset session (clear screen + clear scrollback) | CtrlR |
Note that once connected to a Linux/Unix server via PuTTY, powerful shortcuts provided by shells like Bash are available. However, these are shell-level features running on the server side, not PuTTY application functions, and are therefore omitted here.
System Menu Operations
PuTTY's system menu consolidates convenient features for session management, such as checking event logs, changing settings, and resetting the terminal. These operations can be accessed by clicking the icon in the upper-left corner of the window or by right-clicking the title bar.
For other functions, accessing the system menu is the standard approach.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Open system menu | |
| Display event log | |
| Change settings | |
| Copy all text | |
| Clear scrollback | |
| Reset terminal |