Fatal error was starting Putty after having saved settings
Fix the frustrating PuTTY 'No supported authentication methods available' fatal error after saving settings. Learn the quick solution by deleting a specific PuTTY registry entry.
This article is over a year old but was reviewed on July 30, 2026 — the content is still accurate.
This article is part of the WinSCP & remote file transfer series:
- KeePass - Overriding the URL field
- WinSCP - Retrieve a stored password
- Fatal error was starting Putty after having saved settings
- WinSCP - Synchronize host and remote
- FTP - Remove files and folders at light speed
- WinSCP - Visual Basic for Application use
- WinSCP - Download files with specific extension recursively
- Search your FTP server at lightning speed

This article fixes PuTTY's "No supported authentication methods available" fatal error that can appear after saving default settings: delete the Default%20Settings entry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions in the Windows registry to reset PuTTY's defaults.
A few days ago, I updated my Putty configuration to set the default font-size to 12; no more 10.
Today, when starting Putty — whichever server I wanted to connect to — I got the No supported authentication methods available error, followed, in my case, by (server sent: publickey, gssapi-keyex, gssapi-with-mic, keyboard-interactive).
I only understood the origin of the problem by looking at the window caption: Putty was trying to connect to a server other than the one I wanted. Why? And, ah, ok, the last time I modified my settings I was working on that server so, the solution should come from: how can I reset my Putty settings?
The solution has been provided by @makurison on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57072011/delete-putty-default-settings-modification-to-original.
Simply start regedit.exe, search for the key Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions and, there, remove the entry called Default%20Settings.
While you're at it: KeePass - Overriding the URL field shows how to launch a PuTTY session straight from a KeePass entry, credentials included — and Windows Terminal - Adding a SSH profile does the same without PuTTY at all.
Tired of session/password hassles with Putty?
If you're also fighting with a forgotten stored password, see WinSCP - Retrieve a stored password. Or better, switch to key-based authentication once and for all: SSH - Launch a terminal on your session without having to authenticate yourself.
This article is part of the WinSCP & remote file transfer series:
- KeePass - Overriding the URL field
- WinSCP - Retrieve a stored password
- Fatal error was starting Putty after having saved settings
- WinSCP - Synchronize host and remote
- FTP - Remove files and folders at light speed
- WinSCP - Visual Basic for Application use
- WinSCP - Download files with specific extension recursively
- Search your FTP server at lightning speed

