DefaultShell

To configure a default shell, ensure that the following prerequisites are met

• OpenSSH installation path is in system PATH.
  • If not already present, amend system PATH and restart sshd service.

Follow these steps:

• On the server side, configure the default ssh shell in the windows registry.
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShell - Full path (case sensitive) of the shell executable
  • Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShellCommandOption - The switch that the configured default shell requires to execute a command and immediately exit and return to the calling process. It is used for executing the remote ssh commands. Example- ssh user@ip hostname

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Example - Powershell cmdlets to set powershell bash as default shell

• New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShell -Value "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -PropertyType String -Force

• New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH" -Name DefaultShellCommandOption -Value "/c" -PropertyType String -Force

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If you are configuring the powershell.exe/cmd.exe/WSL-bash.exe as default ssh shell then you can ignore Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShellCommandOption. Your registry should look like this.

If you want to configure default shell (Ex- cygwin) other than powershell/cmd/WSL-bash then your registry should look like this