Why convert pem to ppk?

For those who want to PuTTY to their EC2 instance, there’s a complication: PuTTY does not natively support the PEM file format. You must convert the PEM to a PPK file in order to PuTTY into the instance. Fortunately, the process is straightforward.

In this article, we’ll cover how to convert PEM to PPK using puttygen in Windows.

Here is the quick instructions to convert PEM file to PPK using puttygen.

PuTTYgen is a free, open-source key generator for Windows. You can download it from the official PuTTY website. Once downloaded, run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to install it on your system.

Step 1 – After installation, launch PuTTYgen by searching for it in the Start menu. You should see a window with a few different options.

Step 2 – Click on the “Load” button in the top-left corner of the PuTTYgen window. This will open a file dialog box. Browse to the directory where your PEM file is stored and select it.

Step 3 – Now you will see a successful import message.

Step 4 – In the “Key” section of the PuTTYgen window, you should see a few different options. Click on “Save private key” to save the private key in a different format. In the dialog box that appears, select “PuTTY Private Key Files (*.ppk)” as the file type.

When you create an Amazon EC2 instance, AWS generates the access keys in a Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) format. For those who want to PuTTY to their EC2 instance, there's a complication: PuTTY does not natively support the PEM file format. You must convert the PEM to a PPK file in order to PuTTY into the instance.