In today’s computing environment, smooth file transfers between different operating systems are key to effective collaboration and productivity.
For transferring files from Windows to Linux, WinSCP (Windows Secure Copy) stands out as a dependable and easy-to-use solution. This guide will take you through the steps, helping you transfer files quickly, securely, and with minimal effort from Windows to Linux.
What is WinSCP? #
WinSCP is a widely-used, open-source tool that enables secure file transfers between Windows and Linux systems. It supports protocols like SCP, SFTP, and FTP over TLS/SSL, providing a user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality, synchronized browsing, and text editor integration.
WinSCP also supports automation through scripting and secure authentication with SSH keys and password encryption, making it an efficient solution for managing file transfers securely and easily.
Steps to Transfer Files Between Windows and Linux Using WinSCP #
Prerequisites #
- WinSCP Installed on Your Windows System – If it’s not installed, you can easily install as shown below.
- Remote Desktop Enabled on Windows: Ensure Remote Desktop is enabled on the Windows machine you wish to connect to. Truehost Windows Servers will have this enabled already.
- Windows server IP Address/Hostname and Credentials: Have the IP address of the Windows machine and your login credentials ready.
1. Download and Install WinSCP #
- Log in to your Windows Server via RDP. If you are on Linux, you can check this guide or this one on how to access your Windows Server.
- While on your Windows Server Browser, download WinSCP from their official website
- Once downloaded, double click the file to install it. Install using the default options
2. Connect to Linux Server #
- At this time you have your WinSCP installed on your server, now before you can transfer files, you need to feed in login details for your linux server
- Open WinSCP. You will see where to provide connection confirmation
- File Protocol: Select the default value – SFTP.
- Host name: The IP address of the remote Linux server.
- Port: It usually is the default port 22. If the SSH port is modified to a custom ports, please fill in the custom one.
- User Name: The username is about to log in to the Linux server.
- Password: The password for the user.
- Click on Save, to save the connection into so that you will not have to input it again later.r
- You may want to name the connection file for easy identification later. Then, click OK.
- Then click on Login to login to connect to the Linux Serve
- You may see a message that asks if you want to “Continue connecting to an unknown server and add its host key to a cache?“
- Click Yes if you trust the host
- You may again be asked to provide the password for the remote server. Input it and click OK
3. Do the Actual Files Transfer Between Windows and Linux
- Once you have logged in, you will see that files on the Windows Server will be on the left side and the Linux server system will be on the right side. On the right, you can expend the directories to see more that are under them
- On the left side pane, navigate the file system to the file that you want to transfer, drag a file/folder from the left side pane and drop it in the target destination folder on the right.
- You may see a windows that says “Calculating file size.” If like me, you do not want the calculation to happen but want to dive into file transfer alreasy, you can skip the calculation. There is a button for that there
You will then give it time to do the transfer to completion, depending on the file size.
Note that while here on this window, you can also uplaod files to the Windows Server from your localhost and to download files to your local host from the Windows Server
To uplaod to the server from localhost, right lick on the folder where you want to upload fiels to then uplaod. You will then navigate your localhost files system and get the file that you want to upload, then select it and click on OK.
To download files to localhost from the server, navigate to the files that you want to download then right click on it, then select download. You will be needed to choose the path on your localhost where you want to save the file. Do that, then click OK