Microsoft added support for the OpenSSH protocol in the Fall Creators Update version of Windows 10. The feature is not installed by default, and listed as beta right now. That, and the fact that it is far from feature complete when compared to third-party OpenSSH clients makes it unusable in most work environments right now.

Windows admins and users who needed support for OpenSSH, for instance to communicate with Linux servers or machines, had to use third-party clients on Windows up until now to do so. A popular choice is Putty, or using virtual machines.

The integration of SSH in PowerShell and the Windows command line (cmd.exe) may make things easier in the future.

What you get is a native OpenSSH implementation, not something that runs on the Windows subsystem for Linux.

Windows admins need to enable the OpenSSH functionality first before it becomes available. The only prerequisite is that the operating system is at least Windows 10 version 1709, the Fall Creators Update.

Note: Microsoft manages the Win32 port of OpenSSH on GitHub as an open source project. The company publishes release versions regularly there which are newer than the ones that are included in Windows 10 version 1709. The feature version is 0.0.19.0 right now for instance while you get version 0.0.24.0 on GitHub.

Installation instructions are available here.

OpenSSH in Windows 10

The description is identical for both optional features that you can install.

"OpenSSH Client (Beta), OpenSSH Server (Beta)

Beta release of a secure shell (SSH) client, for secure key management and access to remote machines."

You can install both OpenSSH features in the following way:

1. Use the shortcut Windows-I to open the Settings application.
2. Go to Apps > Apps & Features.
3. Click on "manage optional features".
4. Select "add a feature" on the manage optional features page.
5. Scroll down until OpenSSH Client (beta) and OpenSSH Server (beta) become visible.
6. Select either one, and click on install afterwards to add the functionality to Windows.
7. Restart the PC afterwards to install the new components.

The components get installed under c:\windows\system32\OpenSSH. Windows adds the path to the System Path environment variables automatically so that you may start ssh directly from cdm or powershell without having to add a path or navigate to the path first.

Here are some ssh examples:

1. ssh user@host -- workgroup user
2. ssh domain\user@host -- domain user

There is a bit more to it if you plan on installing the OpenSSH Server. I suggest you check out this guide as it walks you through setting this up on the Windows machine.