Backup and restore PuTTY sessions

PuTTY saves the sessions and settings to Windows Registry, the backup can be made with graphical interface via Registry Editor or with Command Prompt.

Keys to backup
All = HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY
Sessions = HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions

Backup

Registry Editor
1. Open Registry Editor, press ⊞ Windows key + R and type regedit
2. Browse to the PuTTY key, right click and select “Export”.

Command Prompt
1. Open Command Prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator and type the following commands.
2. Backup all

regedit /e C:\putty.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY

3. Backup only sessions

regedit /e C:\putty-sessions.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\

Restore

Open the saved .reg file or type the import command in Command Prompt ( as Administrator)

regedit /i c:\putty.reg

View network connections and change (spoof) MAC address on Windows 7/8/10

Find out more about your network connection (IP address, netmask, gateway, DNS servers, link speed) or spoof your MAC address on Microsoft Windows 7/8/10 via graphical interface and command line.

1. Using graphical user interface

a.) Right-click on the network icon from taskbar and select “Open Network and Sharing Center”

b.) Go to “Change adapter settings”

Windows 10 – Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update) or above.

c.) In the “Network Connections” panel are defined all the connections and their status (Ethernet, WI-FI, Bluetooth, VPN, PPPoE and so on). In my example I have three Ethernet connections with different status: active, inactive and disabled.

Network Connections on Windows
You can open “Network Connections” panel by typing ncpa.cpl in “Command Prompt” or “Run”

d.) Double-click on the connection (must be active) to get the status, duration, link speed and activity.

e.) Click on the “Details” button to view the MAC address (Physical Address), DHCP, IPv4 and IPv6 information.

f.) Change the MAC address  (your network card driver must support MAC spoofing), right-click on the adapter, select “Properties”, press the “Configure” button and go to the “Advanced” tab. In the “Property” column, search for one of the following properties: “Locally Administered Address”, “Network Address”, “Ethernet Address” or “Physical Address”, enter the new MAC address (without hyphens or colons) in the “Value” textbox and press “OK”.

2. Using command line

a.) Open “Command Prompt” (cmd.exe)
b.) Display MAC addresses and full TCP/IP configuration for all adapters

ipconfig /all


c.) Display MAC addresses

getmac /v

3. Change the MAC address with command line via Registry

a.) Display all the network adapters, select and copy the network adapter key.

reg query HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} /s /f DriverDesc

b.) Add “NetworkAddress” string to the Registry with the new MAC address, in my example the network adapter key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 and the MAC address is 1A2B3C4D5E6F (without hyphens or colons). Administrator rights are required.

reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 /v "NetworkAddress" /t REG_SZ /d "1A2B3C4D5E6F"


c.) Disable and enable the network adapter or reboot
d.) Restore the MAC address

reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}\0001 /v "NetworkAddress"