How to connect using key authentication from client machine using Putty to server running freeSSHd

1. Ensure freeSSHd is running on the server and

server status shows "SSH server is running"
authentication is set to "password authentication" = Allowed and "Public key authentication" = "Allowed"
user is has been created e.g. user1 and "Shell" is green i.e. allowed

2. create a file having the same name as the username in the program directory (e.g. for Windows 64 bit, it is "c:\program files (x64)\freeSSHd" e.g. user1 and past the public key from the client in the OpenSSH format

e.g.

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAIEAkukoEYZTlL8z9l1Yw2YV/VX638MGEF49xLo95TtYp7SrhPThU/rACteQ0xdi5cGsgA0qK6k/nsRYX6Y73gvsHf8iMcskayieN0D2M1GLIZqcuEmBilFrgjsY+fz8GsDT+EbbMcFzGEsrdivW8mZ1LR5RtgWlS9RHKnb9W1BFPZE= rsa-key-20111130

3. you can append as many public keys as necessary one per line into the file

4. on the client side using putty, take note of the location and file name of the matching privakey key file (the one that pairs with the public key file used) e.g. id_rsa.ppk

putty -ssh -i id_rsa.ppk user1@ssh-server-address