Always On VPN Updates for Windows 10 2004

Always On VPN Updates for Windows 10 2004Microsoft recently made available an update for Windows 10 2004 that includes many important fixes for outstanding issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN. KB4571744 (build 19041.488) addresses many challenges faced by Always On VPN administrators today, including the following.

TPM

This update addresses an issue that prevents hash signing from working correctly using the Microsoft Platform Crypto Provider for Trusted Platform Module (TPM). This issue can occur when administrators configure Always On VPN to use Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) with client certificate authentication using a FortiGate security device.

Sleep/Hibernate

This update also addresses issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN failing to automatically reconnect when resuming from sleep or hibernate. I’ve written about issues with Always On VPN and sleep/hibernate in the past. This is an issue that has plagued Always On VPN since its introduction, so let’s hope this finally provides some meaningful relief from this persistent problem.

Certificate Authentication

When both the Always On VPN device tunnel and user tunnel are provisioned to a Windows 10 clients, user tunnel connections may be authenticated using the machine certificate and not EAP/PEAP. This can result in connections that are not validated as intended, and allowing a user to bypass configured NPS policies, MFA requirements, or conditional access rules. This update includes a fix for this issue, restoring proper authentication for the user tunnel when the device tunnel is also provisioned.

Device and User Tunnel Coexistence

A bug that first appeared when Windows 10 2004 was introduced prevented a device tunnel and user tunnel Always On VPN connection from being established to the same VPN server if the user tunnel used Internet Key Exchange Version 2 (IKEv2). This update restores full functionality under those conditions.

Update KB4571744

To resolve these issues with Windows 10 Always On VPN as well as others, download and install update KB4571744 today. If you are experiencing any of these issues with releases of Windows 10 prior to 2004, look for updates for those build to come later this year.

Additional Information

September 3, 2020 – KB4571744 (OS Build 19041.488) Preview

Windows 10 Always On VPN Connection Issues after Sleep or Hibernate

Windows 10 Always On VPN Bug in Windows 10 2004

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Status Indicator

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Status IndicatorI’ve written many articles about the Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel over the years. If you are not familiar with the device tunnel, it is an optional configuration that provides pre-logon connectivity for domain-joined, Enterprise edition Windows 10 clients. Although the device tunnel was designed to supplement the user tunnel connection, some administrators have deployed the device tunnel exclusively and use it for general on-premises network access. While I do not typically recommend this configuration for a variety of reasons, there are some use cases for which using the device tunnel might be acceptable.

Device Tunnel Status

For those administrators who have decided to deploy the device tunnel exclusively, a common complaint is that the device tunnel connection status does not appear in the Windows 10 notification area like other network or user tunnel connections.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Status Indicator

However, the device tunnel does appear in the classic Network Connections control panel applet (ncpa.cpl).

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Status Indicator

Enable Device Tunnel Status Indicator

Fortunately, there is a simple workaround that allows for the device tunnel connection status to appear in the Windows 10 notification area. This can be done by setting the following registry value.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Flyout\VPN\ShowDeviceTunnelInUI DWORD = 1

You can set this registry value using Active Directory group policy preferences or locally by running the following PowerShell command.

New-Item -Path ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Flyout\VPN’ -Force
New-ItemProperty -Path ‘HKLM:\Software\Microsoft\Flyout\VPN\’ -Name ‘ShowDeviceTunnelInUI’ -PropertyType DWORD -Value 1 -Force

Once this registry value is set, the Always On VPN device tunnel will appear in the notification area long with other network connections.

Caveat

Although the UI will now display the connectivity status of the Always On VPN device tunnel, clicking Disconnect has no effect. This is expected and by design, as the device tunnel is deployed in the context of the system, not the user. Disconnecting the device tunnel must be performed by an administrator using the GUI tool rasphone.exe or the command line tool rasdial.exe.

Always On VPN Device Tunnel Status Indicator

Blog Post Comments

For the record, several readers of this blog had posted this workaround in the comments of this post. In the past. I declined to approve those comments because initially I did not want to encourage people to deploy the device tunnel standalone. However, recently I have had a change of heart, and decided to publish this information for those administrators who want to use the device tunnel exclusively, and would also benefit from a visual connectivity status indicator for the Windows 10 Always On VPN device tunnel. Although I still do not recommend using the device tunnel alone, I understand that it may be acceptable for others, so I have decided to release that information here.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Only Deployment Considerations

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Operation and Best Practices

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel with Azure VPN Gateway

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel and Certificate Revocation

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using Microsoft Intune

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Does Not Connect Automatically

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Missing in Windows 10 UI

Removing Always On VPN Connections

Removing Always On VPN ConnectionsMuch has been written about provisioning Windows 10 Always On VPN client connections over the past few years. While the preferred method for deploying Always On VPN is Microsoft Intune, using PowerShell is often helpful for initial testing, and required for production deployment with System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) or Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM). That said, there will invariably come a time when an administrator has to remove an Always On VPN connection. It is not as simple as you might think.

Important Note! The PowerShell script mentioned in this post is broken in Windows 11 and some later versions of Windows 10. This is due to an apparent bug whereby the MDM_VPNv2_01 WMI class can’t be enumerated. Microsoft is aware of the issue and hopefully it will be resolved in the near future.

PowerShell

There are a variety of ways to remove an existing Always On VPN connection, with the quickest and simplest being PowerShell and the Remove-VpnConnection cmdlet.

Get-VpnConnection -Name ‘Always On VPN’ | Remove-VpnConnection -Force

There are several limitations to this method, however.

Active Connections

Administrators will quickly realize that PowerShell fails to remove a VPN connection that is currently connected. As shown here, attempting to remove an active VPN connection will return the following error message.

“The VPN connection [connection name] cannot be removed from the local user connections. Cannot delete a connection while it is connected.”

Removing Always On VPN Connections

Registry Artifacts

Removing Always On VPN connections using PowerShell commonly leaves behind registry artifacts that can potentially cause problems. For example, there are several Always On VPN-related registry entries in several locations including the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EnterpriseResourceManager\Tracked hive that may not be deleted when removing an Always On VPN connection. When provisioning a new Always On VPN connection after deleting one with the same name previously, the administrator may encounter the following error message.

“Unable to create [connection name] profile: A general error occurred that is not covered by a more specific error code.”

Removing Always On VPN Connections

Note: This error can also be caused by improperly formatted XML configuration files. More details here.

Remove-AovpnConnection Script

Veteran Always On VPN administrators are likely familiar with PowerShell scripts I’ve created called New-AovpnConneciton.ps1 and New-AovpnDeviceConnection.ps1, which are hosted on my GitHub. These scripts are adapted from code samples published by Microsoft to which I have included additional functionality. To address the limitations highlighted in this article I have published a new PowerShell script called Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1. It will remove any Always On VPN connection, even those that are currently active. It also includes logic to remove known registry artifacts common to Always On VPN. Download the script from GitHub and use the following syntax to remove an Always On VPN connection, established or not.

.\Remove-AovpnConnection.ps1 -ProfileName [connection name]

Running this PowerShell command will forcibly remove an Always On VPN connection. Use the -DeviceTunnel switch when removing a device tunnel connection (requires running in the system context). I have also included a -CleanUpOnly switch to remove registry artifacts when the VPN connection was previously removed using another method.

Updated Installation Scripts

I have also updated New-AovpnConnection.ps1 to include these registry clean up steps. This will prevent future errors when provisioning an Always On VPN client where a connection of the same name was removed previously.

Note: New-AovpnConnection.ps1 has also been updated to support device tunnel deployments. As such, I have deprecated New-AovpnDeviceConnection.ps1. Simply use New-AovpnConnection.ps1 with the -DeviceTunnel switch to deploy an Always On VPN device tunnel.

Additional Information

Windows 10 Always On VPN Device Tunnel Configuration using PowerShell

Troubleshooting Always On VPN Unable to Create Profile General Error