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GitHub distributes a simplified Git client for Windows they call GitHub for Windows; it authenticates via GitHub account, and although it usually uses HTTPS remotes for local repositories it creates, if you tell it to use an existing local repository that has an SSH remote on GitHub, it will use your GitHub credentials to set up an SSH key on the GitHub account for itself. But where does it keep the SSH key in the filesystem?

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  • This was quite a long time ago; the behaviour of the current GitHub Desktop software may be different. Commented Oct 30, 2018 at 22:30
  • I've updated the link to point to the Wayback Machine copy of the GitHub for Windows help page I linked as the original is gone. Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 6:31

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%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub is where the key is.

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On my computer it was in that folder but it was called github_rsa and had the paired github_rsa.pub with it.
This is public key. SSH/GIT uses private one to authorize.
where is it now in 2020
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On my work PC it is in %USERPROFILE%/.ssh/ and not %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%/.ssh/.

On many computers those folders are the same location, but it depends on the configuration. So it seems %USERPROFILE% is the location used by GitHub for Windows, which is also the ~ home location for its Git Bash.

This is confusing since my Windows Git default installation uses %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% as its ~ home location.

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In our company, UserProfile is completely different from HomeDrive+Path, and UserProfile leads to the correct folder where GIT stores its .ssh folder.
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The default location is: %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub. That would expand to something like C:\Users\dennis\.ssh\id_rsa.pub.

If %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub already exists, GitHub creates a key named github_rsa(.pub) in the same folder.

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5

It's in %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh.

Note that GitHub for Windows normally uses SSL; SSH keys won't have been created unless you've used an SSH repository with it at some point.

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On my Windows 10 Home the .ssh folder's path is %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\AppData\Roaming\SPB_Data\.ssh

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Isn't there a shorter form? Something like %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\SPB_Data\.ssh? Or even shorter, like %APPDATA%\SPB_Data\.ssh?

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