ADTC wrote:

It may be good to remind the user about this with a helpful hint near the "Refresh remote panel every _ s" option.

The option Refresh remote panel every ... is not intended to keep session alive, so a reference is not really relevant there.

Thank you. I didn't know of this option. I will try it.

It may be good to remind the user about this with a helpful hint near the "Refresh remote panel every _ s" option.

Just enable keepalives for your sessions:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_login_connection

As WinSCP supports tabbed interface, I would like the option "Refresh remote panel every _ s" to take effect on all tabs in a window, not just the active tab.

If a tab is inactive, eventually it is going to lose its connection because the above option is not actively used in the tab. Only when the tab is active (I have clicked on it and brought it to the foreground) is the above option actively used in the tab, keeping the connection alive.

I would like the connection to be kept alive even if a tab is inactive, as I don't want to rely on multiple WinSCP windows to achieve the same effect.

This could also be provided as a separate user option: A checkbox "Refresh remote panel in all tabs" below the "Refresh remote panel every _ s" checkbox.