This request has been added to the tracker:
https://winscp.net/tracker/1797
You can vote for it there.

martin wrote:

WinSCP can now convert keys to PPK format on its own. So it's not necessary to use PuTTYgen anymore (although PuTTYgen is part of WinSCP installation anyway).

it would be nice if winscp just could work with the "normal" keys instead of needing to convert them.

This would be really nice to have

WinSCP can now convert keys to PPK format on its own. So it's not necessary to use PuTTYgen anymore (although PuTTYgen is part of WinSCP installation anyway).

The conversion is supported both on commandline:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/commandline#keygen
And in WinSCP GUI:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_login_authentication#private_key

This would definitely be a nice feature.

Thanks for your suggestion.
Will see if more people ask for this.

I use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and SSH tunnel to my VPS with OpenSSH from WSL. I've deleted the Putty and the ppk files as I usually no longer use it in Windows due to having all features in WSL openSSH and as I aspire to have as less as files possible by means of minimalism and having a minimal desktop.

Is it possible to add support in non ppk private keys so that no Pageant is needed to authenticate in each usage of the WinSCP program?

Thanks,