I have a linux macheen that uses a public key/private key login.
I am trying to add a private key (with password) to windows 7/8 credentials manager.
I use pageant right now but i would like for a more permanent solution, maybe without having to enter password everytime i try to load private key or, at least, automatically open credential window when i try to enter to a server.
How can I add the private key to credentials manager or how can i acheive what i described above?
You can't do this directly: the credential manager isn't actually designed to serve private/public key pairs but to hold passwords.
You can, however design a workaround: get keepass 2 and the "Keeagent" extension. remove pageant since it will conflict with keeagent.
Once both are installed and running, create a database and link it to your current user account.
After that, create a new entry in keepass, add the private key file as attachment to that entry, use the private key password as the entry's password and set your 'nix username as user name. Then go to the KeeAgent tab of the entry and enable it to be used in agent.
You're done. When you now connect to a system that uses agents (putty, mostly), you will be prompted for the keepass database password which is actually only the user account: just press enter and you'll be in.
Be careful to keep a safe backup of the key, however, since you WILL lose access to it if you have to delete your windows user account.
Of course, it would be much safer (and quite a bit more flexible) to secure the keepass database with a password and a key file. If you're willing to do so, you'll be able to use it for all your passwords needs (personally, after going down that road years ago, I can't imagine going back).
