Where does GitHub for Windows keep its SSH key?

GitHub distributes a simplified Git client for Windows they call GitHub for Windows; it authenticates via GitHub account, and although it usually uses HTTPS remotes for local repositories it creates, if you tell it to use an existing local repository that has an SSH remote on GitHub, it will use your GitHub credentials to set up an SSH key on the GitHub account for itself. But where does it keep the SSH key in the filesystem?

Solution 1:

%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub is where the key is.

Solution 2:

On my work PC it is in %USERPROFILE%/.ssh/ and not %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%/.ssh/.

On many computers those folders are the same location, but it depends on the configuration. So it seems %USERPROFILE% is the location used by GitHub for Windows, which is also the ~ home location for its Git Bash.

This is confusing since my Windows Git default installation uses %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% as its ~ home location.

Solution 3:

The default location is: %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub. That would expand to something like C:\Users\dennis\.ssh\id_rsa.pub.

If %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub already exists, GitHub creates a key named github_rsa(.pub) in the same folder.