Starting ssh-agent on Windows 10 fails: "unable to start ssh-agent service, error :1058"

Question

When I try to start the ssh-agent on Windows 10 via PowerShell (with elevated right or without) by entering Start-Service ssh-agent I get the error

unable to start ssh-agent service, error :1058

When I check of the service is running via Get-Service ssh-agent is returns that the service is stopped.

How can I get the ssh-agent running?

Answer 1

Yeah, as others have suggested, this error seems to mean that ssh-agent is installed but its service (on windows) hasn't been started.

You can check this by running in Windows PowerShell:

> Get-Service ssh-agent 

And then check the output of status is not running.

Status   Name               DisplayName ------   ----               ----------- Stopped  ssh-agent          OpenSSH Authentication Agent 

Then check that the service has been disabled by running

> Get-Service ssh-agent | Select StartType  StartType --------- Disabled 

I suggest setting the service to start manually. This means that as soon as you run ssh-agent, it'll start the service. You can do this through the Services GUI or you can run the command in admin mode:

 > Get-Service -Name ssh-agent | Set-Service -StartupType Manual 

Alternatively, you can set it through the GUI if you prefer.

Answer 2

I solved the problem by changing the StartupType of the ssh-agent to Manual via Set-Service ssh-agent -StartupType Manual.

Then I was able to start the service via Start-Service ssh-agent or just ssh-agent.exe.