Starting Putty from Excel

[erlingre]

Hi,

I have a Excel spreadsheet with hostnames in column A.
I have added this macro so that I can doubleclick to launch Putty to log on a given host:

[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=2]Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(<wbr>ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
     If Range("A" & ActiveCell.Row) <> Empty Then
         Shell "C:\Program Files (x86)\putty\putty.exe -agent <myuser>@" & ActiveCell, vbNormalFocus
     End If
 End Sub
</myuser>[/SIZE][/FONT]

It works, but I have not been able to user pageant to avoid typing my password (I want to use key based auth).
Pageant works well if I start putty outside of Excel.
I have also tried to start pageant with a macro from Excel with no sucess.

Do you have any idea how I can fix this? I suspect it may be something with environment variables, etc if there is such a thing in Windows.

Thanks,

Erling

 

[Andrew Poulsom]

Welcome to MrExcel.

That's not really an Excel question. I suggest you Google for 'shell putty password'. Here's one hit:

Is there a way to "auto login" in PuTTY with a password? - Super User

 

[erlingre]

I'm well aware of how I can log on in Putty without using a password. It works well (using ssh-keys and pageant) when I launch putty outside Excel, but when I start
Putty via a macro in Excel it does not work. So I wonder if programs started via a macro lives in a isolated environment or something (thus not being able to use the alredy started ssh-agent).

 

[Andrew Poulsom]

I'm not aware of any limitations in VBA's Shell function.

 

[erlingre]

I have found the error. Nothing was wrong with my macro or Execel, the error was simply that I passed the wrong option to Putty.
Instead of using -agent I had to use -A to make Putty use Pageant for authentication.

Sorry for bothering you with a non Excel related error, and thanks for your replies and patience.