Windows 8 VPN

2012/09/20 in x86, x86_64

“Windows does not really offer any good ways of setting up a permanent VPN connection that is stable.”

That’s quite the understatement, considering that the VPN implementation on Windows was never very well thought out. It was never possible to have a connection blocked if the VPN connection, for whatever reason, was disconnected. In that case the traffic would just resume unhindered over any other network connection that still existed. If this was what the user intended, he probably wouldn’t have created the VPN connection in the first place. So, quite frankly, the OS is deliberately acting against the user’s will. Unsatisfactory, to say the least. Of course it’s possible to do something against that default behavior, with some effort, but that’s not the point, because that’s not how an important feature should ever be designed.

Windows 8 now “adds to” this already lacking functionality with removing all redial options. This doesn’t just mean that the OS will be completely passive concerning a lost VPN connection, it also has the negative consequence, that any unwanted VPN failure will be fully invisible to the user. No information whatsoever. Windows 7 could at least display the redial window and thus have a chance of alerting the user to the problem.

I could comprehend that MS isn’t interested in adding anything to Windows 8 except their Metro stuff, but even crippling core functionality on top of such already questionable priorities, is all the more disappointing. This was discovered by lots of users during the preview edition of Windows 8, but back then people still believed/hoped it would change before the final release. Now even this is in the rearview mirror.