UT Austin Computer Science

Windows UTCS Access CS 373

Software Engineering • Summer 2026
Getting Started Resource
Use this page to connect to UTCS machines from Windows using WinSCP, SFTP, and PuTTY.
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Overview

Use WinSCP to transfer files between your local machine and UTCS via SFTP. You can also use WinSCP with PuTTY to open a remote SSH terminal.

If one UTCS machine is unavailable, try another public CS machine from the UTCS machine-status page.

Install WinSCP

Connection settings

Install WinSCP and connect using your UTCS credentials.

  • File Protocol: SFTP
  • Host name: life.cs.utexas.edu
  • Port number: 22
  • User name: <yourUTCSusername>
  • Password: <yourUTCSpassword>
  • Other hosts: Public UNIX hosts

You can now upload or download files to and from your UTCS account.

Open a Remote Terminal

Using PuTTY through WinSCP

To work remotely on UTCS machines from Windows, install or configure PuTTY integration. In WinSCP, choose Commands > Open in PuTTY.

Enter your CS password when prompted. You should then receive a Linux prompt similar to:

Using username "yourUTCSusername".
Welcome to Ubuntu ...

life$

At this point, you can work on UTCS machines from your local computer and use Unix/Linux commands.

Windows Line Endings

Warning:
Transferring files from Windows to UTCS machines may cause execution issues because Windows uses \r\n line endings while UNIX uses \n.

To fix a transferred Python file on UTCS, run:

dos2unix file.py

Alternatively, use GitLab to push from Windows and pull on UTCS; Git may handle line endings automatically depending on configuration.