So if you want to copy the file My_file. scp My_file.txt is, to copy the file to your desktop you might want to transfer it to /home/erez/Desktop/: scp My_file.txt using the shortcut: scp My_file.txt using a relative path on the remote side, which is interpreted relative to your home directory: scp My_file.txt already mentioned, you also have to swap the arguments, it has to be scp FROM TO If you installed Bitvise SSH Server on a domain controller, the above steps will not be sufficient. If path to your home is something like /home/erez try the following: scp My_file.txt can substitute the path to your home directory with the shortcut ~/, so the following will have the same effect: scp My_file.txt can even leave out the path altogether on the remote side this means your home directory. The SSH Server will allow these users to only use SFTP or SCP, and none of the other SSH protocol features, and will restrict their file access to each user's root directory, or to their virtual filesystem mount points.

What you want to do is to transfer them to your home directory (since you have no permissions to write to /). Your commands are trying to put the new Document to the root ( /) of your machine.