config.but

putty

fiddle with it.

\S{config-appcursor} Controlling \i{Application Cursor Keys} mode

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.appcursor}

Application Cursor Keys mode is a way for the server to change the
control sequences sent by the arrow keys. In normal mode, the arrow
keys send \c{ESC [A} through to \c{ESC [D}. In application mode,
they send \c{ESC OA} through to \c{ESC OD}.

Application Cursor Keys mode can be turned on and off by the server,
depending on the application. PuTTY allows you to configure the
initial state.

You can also disable application cursor keys mode completely, using
the \q{Features} configuration panel; see
\k{config-features-application}.

\S{config-appkeypad} Controlling \i{Application Keypad} mode

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.appkeypad}

Application Keypad mode is a way for the server to change the
behaviour of the numeric keypad.

In normal mode, the keypad behaves like a normal Windows keypad:
with \i{NumLock} on, the number keys generate numbers, and with NumLock
off they act like the arrow keys and Home, End etc.

In application mode, all the keypad keys send special control
sequences, \e{including} Num Lock. Num Lock stops behaving like Num
Lock and becomes another function key.

Depending on which version of Windows you run, you may find the Num
Lock light still flashes on and off every time you press Num Lock,
even when application mode is active and Num Lock is acting like a
function key. This is unavoidable.

Application keypad mode can be turned on and off by the server,
depending on the application. PuTTY allows you to configure the
initial state.

You can also disable application keypad mode completely, using the
\q{Features} configuration panel; see
\k{config-features-application}.

\S{config-nethack} Using \i{NetHack keypad mode}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.nethack}

PuTTY has a special mode for playing NetHack. You can enable it by
selecting \q{NetHack} in the \q{Initial state of numeric keypad}
control.

In this mode, the numeric keypad keys 1-9 generate the NetHack
movement commands (\cw{hjklyubn}). The 5 key generates the \c{.}
command (do nothing).

In addition, pressing Shift or Ctrl with the keypad keys generate
the Shift- or Ctrl-keys you would expect (e.g. keypad-7 generates
\cq{y}, so Shift-keypad-7 generates \cq{Y} and Ctrl-keypad-7
generates Ctrl-Y); these commands tell NetHack to keep moving you in
the same direction until you encounter something interesting.

For some reason, this feature only works properly when \i{Num Lock} is
on. We don't know why.

\S{config-compose} Enabling a DEC-like \ii{Compose key}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.compose}

DEC terminals have a Compose key, which provides an easy-to-remember
way of typing \i{accented characters}. You press Compose and then type
two more characters. The two characters are \q{combined} to produce
an accented character. The choices of character are designed to be
easy to remember; for example, composing \q{e} and \q{`} produces
the \q{\u00e8{e-grave}} character.

If your keyboard has a Windows \i{Application key}, it acts as a Compose
key in PuTTY. Alternatively, if you enable the \q{\i{AltGr} acts as
Compose key} option, the AltGr key will become a Compose key.

\S{config-ctrlalt} \q{Control-Alt is different from \i{AltGr}}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{keyboard.ctrlalt}

Some old keyboards do not have an AltGr key, which can make it
difficult to type some characters. PuTTY can be configured to treat
the key combination Ctrl + Left Alt the same way as the AltGr key.

By default, this checkbox is checked, and the key combination Ctrl +
Left Alt does something completely different. PuTTY's usual handling
of the left Alt key is to prefix the Escape (Control-\cw{[})
character to whatever character sequence the rest of the keypress
would generate. For example, Alt-A generates Escape followed by
\c{a}. So Alt-Ctrl-A would generate Escape, followed by Control-A.

If you uncheck this box, Ctrl-Alt will become a synonym for AltGr,
so you can use it to type extra graphic characters if your keyboard
has any.

(However, Ctrl-Alt will never act as a Compose key, regardless of the
setting of \q{AltGr acts as Compose key} described in
\k{config-compose}.)

\H{config-bell} The Bell panel

The Bell panel controls the \i{terminal bell} feature: the server's
ability to cause PuTTY to beep at you.

In the default configuration, when the server sends the character
with ASCII code 7 (Control-G), PuTTY will play the \i{Windows Default
Beep} sound. This is not always what you want the terminal bell
feature to do; the Bell panel allows you to configure alternative
actions.

\S{config-bellstyle} \q{Set the style of bell}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{bell.style}

This control allows you to select various different actions to occur
on a terminal bell:

\b Selecting \q{None} \I{terminal bell, disabling}disables the bell
completely. In this mode, the server can send as many Control-G
characters as it likes and nothing at all will happen.

\b \q{Make default system alert sound} is the default setting. It
causes the Windows \q{Default Beep} sound to be played. To change
what this sound is, or to test it if nothing seems to be happening,
use the Sound configurer in the Windows Control Panel.

\b \q{\ii{Visual bell}} is a silent alternative to a beeping computer. In
this mode, when the server sends a Control-G, the whole PuTTY window
will flash white for a fraction of a second.

\b \q{Beep using the \i{PC speaker}} is self-explanatory.

\b \q{Play a custom \i{sound file}} allows you to specify a particular
sound file to be used by PuTTY alone, or even by a particular
individual PuTTY session. This allows you to distinguish your PuTTY
beeps from any other beeps on the system. If you select this option,
you will also need to enter the name of your sound file in the edit
control \q{Custom sound file to play as a bell}.

\S{config-belltaskbar} \q{\ii{Taskbar}/\I{window caption}caption
indication on bell}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{bell.taskbar}

This feature controls what happens to the PuTTY window's entry in
the Windows Taskbar if a bell occurs while the window does not have
the input focus.

In the default state (\q{Disabled}) nothing unusual happens.

If you select \q{Steady}, then when a bell occurs and the window is
not in focus, the window's Taskbar entry and its title bar will
change colour to let you know that PuTTY session is asking for your
attention. The change of colour will persist until you select the
window, so you can leave several PuTTY windows minimised in your
terminal, go away from your keyboard, and be sure not to have missed
any important beeps when you get back.

\q{Flashing} is even more eye-catching: the Taskbar entry will
continuously flash on and off until you select the window.

\S{config-bellovl} \q{Control the \i{bell overload} behaviour}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{bell.overload}

A common user error in a terminal session is to accidentally run the
Unix command \c{cat} (or equivalent) on an inappropriate file type,
such as an executable, image file, or ZIP file. This produces a huge
stream of non-text characters sent to the terminal, which typically
includes a lot of bell characters. As a result of this the terminal
often doesn't stop beeping for ten minutes, and everybody else in
the office gets annoyed.

To try to avoid this behaviour, or any other cause of excessive
beeping, PuTTY includes a bell overload management feature. In the
default configuration, receiving more than five bell characters in a
two-second period will cause the overload feature to activate. Once
the overload feature is active, further bells will \I{terminal bell,
disabling} have no effect at all, so the rest of your binary file
will be sent to the screen in silence. After a period of five seconds
during which no further bells are received, the overload feature will
turn itself off again and bells will be re-enabled.

If you want this feature completely disabled, you can turn it off
using the checkbox \q{Bell is temporarily disabled when over-used}.

Alternatively, if you like the bell overload feature but don't agree
with the settings, you can configure the details: how many bells
constitute an overload, how short a time period they have to arrive
in to do so, and how much silent time is required before the
overload feature will deactivate itself.

Bell overload mode is always deactivated by any keypress in the
terminal. This means it can respond to large unexpected streams of
data, but does not interfere with ordinary command-line activities
that generate beeps (such as filename completion).

\H{config-features} The Features panel

PuTTY's \i{terminal emulation} is very highly featured, and can do a lot
of things under remote server control. Some of these features can
cause problems due to buggy or strangely configured server
applications.

The Features configuration panel allows you to disable some of
PuTTY's more advanced terminal features, in case they cause trouble.

\S{config-features-application} Disabling application keypad and cursor keys

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.application}

\I{Application Keypad}Application keypad mode (see
\k{config-appkeypad}) and \I{Application Cursor Keys}application
cursor keys mode (see \k{config-appcursor}) alter the behaviour of
the keypad and cursor keys. Some applications enable these modes but
then do not deal correctly with the modified keys. You can force
these modes to be permanently disabled no matter what the server
tries to do.

\S{config-features-mouse} Disabling \cw{xterm}-style \i{mouse reporting}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.mouse}

PuTTY allows the server to send \i{control codes} that let it take over
the mouse and use it for purposes other than \i{copy and paste}.
Applications which use this feature include the text-mode web
browser \i\c{links}, the Usenet newsreader \i\c{trn} version 4, and the
file manager \i\c{mc} (Midnight Commander).

If you find this feature inconvenient, you can disable it using the
\q{Disable xterm-style mouse reporting} control. With this box
ticked, the mouse will \e{always} do copy and paste in the normal
way.

Note that even if the application takes over the mouse, you can
still manage PuTTY's copy and paste by holding down the Shift key
while you select and paste, unless you have deliberately turned this
feature off (see \k{config-mouseshift}).

\S{config-features-resize} Disabling remote \i{terminal resizing}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.resize}

PuTTY has the ability to change the terminal's size and position in
response to commands from the server. If you find PuTTY is doing
this unexpectedly or inconveniently, you can tell PuTTY not to
respond to those server commands.

\S{config-features-altscreen} Disabling switching to the \i{alternate screen}

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.altscreen}

Many terminals, including PuTTY, support an \q{alternate screen}.
This is the same size as the ordinary terminal screen, but separate.
Typically a screen-based program such as a text editor might switch
the terminal to the alternate screen before starting up. Then at the
end of the run, it switches back to the primary screen, and you see
the screen contents just as they were before starting the editor.

Some people prefer this not to happen. If you want your editor to
run in the same screen as the rest of your terminal activity, you
can disable the alternate screen feature completely.

\S{config-features-retitle} Disabling remote \i{window title} changing

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.retitle}

PuTTY has the ability to change the window title in response to
commands from the server. If you find PuTTY is doing this
unexpectedly or inconveniently, you can tell PuTTY not to respond to
those server commands.

\S{config-features-qtitle} Response to remote \i{window title} querying

\cfg{winhelp-topic}{features.qtitle}

PuTTY can optionally provide the xterm service of allowing server
applications to find out the local window title. This feature is
disabled by default, but you can turn it on if you really want it.

NOTE that this feature is a \e{potential \i{security hazard}}. If a
malicious application can write data to your terminal (for example,
if you merely \c{cat} a file owned by someone else on the server
machine), it can change your window title (unless you have disabled
this as mentioned in \k{config-features-retitle}) and then use this
service to have the new window title sent back to the server as if
typed at the keyboard. This allows an attacker to fake keypresses
and potentially cause your server-side applications to do things you
didn't want. Therefore this feature is disabled by default, and we
recommend you do not set it to \q{Window title} unless you \e{really}
know what you are doing.

There are three settings for this option:

\dt \q{None}

\dd PuTTY makes no response whatsoever to the relevant escape
sequence. This may upset server-side software that is expecting some