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Until yesterday I used a Windows 7 Pro and OpenVPN to connect to a VPN. In the OpenVPN config folder I had:

  • ca.crt
  • client.key
  • connection.ovpn

Due to some hardware failure I was forced to buy a new system that came Windows 10 Home pre-installed.

In Windows 10, I'm trying to use the built-in VPN connection system, in order to avoid installing OpenVPN, but I'm unable to make it work. I installed the ca.crt in the MMC, in Trusted Root Certification Authority, but when I press Connect it says "Can't connect to VPNCONNECTION - A certificate could not be found that can be used with this Extensible Authentication Protocol". I tried various settings, but no luck (and for me it's really a matter of luck, since I don't know what I'm doing there)

I installed OpenVPN, copy-pasted the config directory contents from my old machine and it connected just fine.

Is there any chance I can use the Windows 10 built-in system and uninstall OpenVPN?

Thanks!

VMC
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  • The error message suggests that either, client device or client user certificate is missing on Windows box. CA cert is required to establish a trust, however there should be another certificate (with private key) to use for client authentication. – Crypt32 Jan 17 '17 at 16:57
  • I do have the `client.key` file which contains a private key. Is this what you where referring to? If so, how should I use it? Thanks! – VMC Jan 18 '17 at 11:53
  • yes. You have to merge `client.cer` (it may have `.pem` extension) and `client.key` files to single `client.pfx` and then install it to Windows Certificate Store. (Current User\Personal) – Crypt32 Jan 18 '17 at 12:48
  • Well, unfortunately I have no `client.cer`, nor `client.pem`, so I'm a bit stuck on this. But thank you for your time. – VMC Jan 19 '17 at 10:40

1 Answers1

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You can't use the built-in VPN for connecting to OpenVPN. The Windows VPN client only supports the protocols L2TP, PPTP, IKEv2 and Microsoft's SSTP. OpenVPN is a SSL VPN, and the thing with a SSL VPN is that every company has its own Secret Sauce for the connection parameters. While in the future Windows could look into adding support for OpenVPN in particular, in that case the Protocol field will clearly call out OpenVPN.

Cory Knutson
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Aman Arneja - MSFT
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