Disabling the Windows 7 UAC to troubleshoot Personal VPN connections

 

On occasion, the installation of OpenVPN goes wrong or some other factor prevents proper installation or function. In the majority of cases, both installation and connection errors are due to not having proper Windows 7 system permissions set. One way to prove that the problems are permission related is to disable the UAC (User Account Control). Disabling the UAC removes all the permission requirements the program need to run and connect with.

 

If everything works with the UAC off, you can be assured the issue is one of permissions.

 

Go to 'Start' and enter UAC in the search box. Now double-click on the search result named 'Change User Account Control Settings'. Slide the bar to 'Never Notify'. Click 'OK' and then reboot the computer. Now go back and try installing or running OpenVPN.