That would definitely make the behavior more intuitive and user-friendly. Right now, pasting a full file path like /etc/fstab causing an “Error listing directory” can be a bit confusing, especially since WinSCP already recognizes the file after navigating back up one level.

A smarter approach would be for WinSCP to detect whether the pasted path points to a directory or a file:

• If it’s a directory, open it directly (current behavior).
  
• If it’s a file, automatically open the parent directory and highlight/select the file.
  

This would make path navigation much smoother and align better with user expectations.

Thanks for your suggestion.
We will see, if more people ask for this.

Hello,

it is already possible to simply paste the text /etc into the remote tab and WinSCP will go to that directory. However, when you paste a string with a filename like /etc/fstab, this leads to an error message "Error listing directory".

/etc/fstab is then shown as an empty directory, and when you go up one level, fstab is the active/selected file.

WinSCP should check if the pasted string is a directory or a file and either open the directory (as before), or open the parent path and select the file.