# How to Connect to your Droplet with PuTTY on Windows

DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use, either standalone or as part of a larger, cloud-based infrastructure.

[PuTTY](https://www.putty.org/) is an open-source SSH and Telnet client for Windows. It allows you to securely connect to remote servers from a local Windows computer.

If you don’t have PuTTY installed, visit the [PuTTY website](https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html) and choose the Windows installer from the **Package files** list. Once PuTTY is installed, start the program.

We recommend following the [official PuTTY documentation on getting started](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter2.html#gs):

[Getting Started with PuTTY](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter2.html): Official PuTTY documentation on how to start a session, verify the host key, log in, and log out of remote servers.

PuTTY’s documentation covers how to start a session. To avoid entering the same configuration options each time you connect, you can save your session settings:

1. In the [host name section](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-hostname), enter the Droplet’s IP address, which you can find in [the control panel](https://cloud.digitalocean.com) and set the port to `22`. Set the [connection type](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-ssh-prot) to SSH.
2. [Set the SSH protocol](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-ssh-prot) to 2.
3. If you’re using SSH keys, [add the private key file](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-ssh-privkey).
4. If you don’t want to enter a username every time you connect, [add an auto-login username](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-username).
5. Finally, [save the session](https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.83/htmldoc/Chapter4.html#config-saving).

You can use this saved session to connect in the future.