Tip #31: Simple Portable SFTP Server for Windows XP

Today's tip is on providing a small, portable SFTP server for Windows XP for SSH encrypted file transfers... While there are ports of OpenSSH available for Windows machines, we'll be taking a look at a tiny, single executable, SFTP server for Windows...

The utility we'll be using is called the Mini SFTP Server from CoreFTP, and it's provided free of charge from the developers of the CoreFTP FTP Client and Server... The single executable format makes it ideal for carrying around on your USB flash drive...

The Mini SFTP Server can be downloaded from here... There is no install process, just launch the msftpsrvr.exe executable after you have completed downloading it...

After you have launched the msftpsrvr.exe application, you can configure a single User ID / Password combination, the port number on which the server will run, and the directory which will serve as the root path for the server... After you have adjusted the settings to your needs, simply click on the Start button to start the server... If you are behind a router, you will need enable port forwarding to your machine using the port you specified in the configuration...

To connect to your SFTP server, remote users can use a SFTP client application of their choice, including pscp from the PuTTY developers, as well as WinSCP...


After you have run the application once, it stores the values you've supplied into the registry for future use... The registry keys can be deleted if you'd like (HKCU/Software/FTPWare), or you can simply clear the fields of the application prior to exiting the program to clear the registry entries...

To start the server process immediately upon launch (using the values previously stored in the registry), you can add the -start switch to the shortcut or from the command line, (i.e. msftpsrvr.exe -start)...

If you have any questions, please leave a comment...