SSH Agent Service is Disabled

I’ve just run into an issue while trying to start the ssh-agent in PowerShell Core. The problem displayed was:
unable to start ssh-agent service, error :1058

For my own personal future reference, the problem was that the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service startup type was set to Disabled. The solution was to set the startup type to Automatic.

In Windows 10 you can find the list of services pretty easily. Bring up the start menu and type Services. You’ll see the Services app listed. Open the Services app and you will see a list of services on your machine.

The location of the OpenSSH Authentication Agent within the Services list.
Finding the OpenSSH Authentication Agent

Once the Services app is open, find the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service and set the startup type to Automatic.

💥 You win

3 thoughts on “SSH Agent Service is Disabled”

  1. thanks, this was the solution I was looking for.

    I’ve switched from using Putty to using the ssh that comes in openssh with Windows 10 these days, it means you can use all the regular things like ssh config files, and thus use jump boxes automatically.

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