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openvpn for windows 10 app

Open jaiabishek opened this issue 8 years ago • 26 comments

do you guys have any idea in building the app for windows 10 mobiles and workstations.

jaiabishek avatar May 24 '16 09:05 jaiabishek

I have not heard of any such plans. I also believe that the porting effort would be significant. As Windows phones are not really gaining momentum means that it's unlikely such an app would appear anytime soon (or ever). Regardless, I'll keep this issue open so that other people who may need "modern" OpenVPN app can chime in.

mattock avatar May 25 '16 07:05 mattock

If somebody dares to take that path, creating a real OpenVPN provider for Win10 would be the best way.

In the action center there is a "VPN" tile. When you click that you can create a VPN connection. Then you need to select a VPN provider.

I have really not investigated but I assume MSDN has the documentation needed to create a provider. A very quick search result is https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows.networking.vpn where is stated that when you have questions about the VPN API you can contact them via e-mail.

ffes avatar Jul 15 '16 08:07 ffes

Hi,

On Fri, Jul 15, 2016 at 01:01:05AM -0700, Frank Fesevur wrote:

If somebody dares to take that path, creating a real OpenVPN provider for Win10 would be the best way.

Undoubtedly. Unfortunately, "someone" would have to have lots of time in his hands, or be paid for that - and I see neither right now.

gert

USENET is not the non-clickable part of WWW! //www.muc.de/~gert/ Gert Doering - Munich, Germany [email protected] fax: +49-89-35655025 [email protected]

cron2 avatar Jul 15 '16 12:07 cron2

Any news on this? I'd really love to see this - this could also be the answer to #51, #77 and #79

farosch avatar Apr 14 '18 13:04 farosch

We're eventually going to get there with the "Unified Connect" client which I believe is already in beta for the Android platform. That client will be based on openvpn3. I suspect it will take some months before anything will be available in the Microsoft Store. At the moment there are no plans to open source the Windows client.

@brunofin If you want to open source your work I suggest waiting a bit until the Windows VPN API is a bit more mature. This helps you avoid banging your head against Windows bugs. In any case I think the client using the Windows API will not be openvpn-gui, but something entirely else.

mattock avatar Apr 16 '18 07:04 mattock

Some issues CISCO had that may be relevant @brunofin.

HarvsG avatar May 22 '18 14:05 HarvsG

Any updates on this? Having OpenVPN as a UWP VPN plugin would be great for a seamless integration with the Windows VPN functionality. Let us know if you decide to release the code and/or are open to getting some help.

Boca13 avatar Jan 23 '19 18:01 Boca13

Some time has passed again and I was confronted by a windows 10 s device that has no possibility to install openvpn. Is there any testing going on or was the project "openvpn as native vpn provider for windows" canceled?

alie2n avatar Sep 12 '19 13:09 alie2n

Just checking in on this. Any updates?

JM-Lemmi avatar May 15 '20 09:05 JM-Lemmi

@lstipakov should know.

mattock avatar May 18 '20 10:05 mattock

We had a proof of concept - openvpn client using UWP VPN API, but because of:

  • we didn't manage to achieve a good performance even comparison with TAP driver (not even mentioning wintun driver, which is significantly faster)

  • Windows Phone is dead and UWP doesn't seem to get much traction

we decided to put that on the shelf.

lstipakov avatar May 19 '20 15:05 lstipakov

Even with the reduced performance, I think having an UWP option would be great for Windows 10 S devices as they could still be used to connect to the home network with a lot of the routers having a OpenVPN server. This could keep the devices secure without the need to sign up for a paid VPN service and still allow access to the home NAS and even IoT devices. Anyone needing more complex setups would still be able to use the current client...

123gizi avatar Nov 05 '20 01:11 123gizi

Would be great to have this option as it could enable people to log into vpn before login in their computer. Like Cisco Anyconnect.

v1ctormoreno avatar Mar 31 '21 23:03 v1ctormoreno

We had prototype of OpenVPN client based on UWP, but performance-wise it was not noticeably faster comparison to tap-windows6 based client, At the moment we're focusing on the new high-performance ovpn-dco-win driver (https://github.com/openvpn/ovpn-dco-win) which provides superior performance. However, at the moment it is under development and not recommended for production use.

Note that you can use OpenVPN service for autostart feature, see https://openvpn.net/community-resources/running-openvpn-as-a-windows-service/.

lstipakov avatar Apr 01 '21 06:04 lstipakov

Will this driver enable OpenVPN client integration in Windows seamlessly? (for example to connect to from Windows to an OpenVPN server hosted on Linux) I mean just like the other VPN protocols?

MohammedNoureldin avatar Aug 29 '21 22:08 MohammedNoureldin

Any progress on the integration with Windows Internal VPN? Or maybe add as provider? - this will help a lot of users which have Windows S

ThaDaVos avatar Oct 14 '21 12:10 ThaDaVos

Not at the moment.

We are now focused on getting our new driver (https://github.com/openvpn/ovpn-dco-win) into OpenVPN 2.6, which should significantly improve performance on Windows.

lstipakov avatar Oct 14 '21 12:10 lstipakov

Not at the moment.

We are now focused on getting our new driver (https://github.com/openvpn/ovpn-dco-win) into OpenVPN 2.6, which should significantly improve performance on Windows.

Would it be possible to get the windows package published via the windows 11 store at least?- that would solve my problem with having Windows 11 S Mode.

terrorx9 avatar Oct 30 '21 10:10 terrorx9

Right now it is not possible to upload openvpn-gui into the Microsoft Store. However, recently Microsoft announced plans to support "traditional" apps in store and we have been in contact with them. We'll let you know when we'll have something.

lstipakov avatar Nov 02 '21 10:11 lstipakov

We had a proof of concept - openvpn client using UWP VPN API, but because of:

* we didn't manage to achieve a good performance even comparison with TAP driver (not even mentioning wintun driver, which is significantly faster)

* Windows Phone is dead and UWP doesn't seem to get much traction

we decided to put that on the shelf.

@lstipakov I know you mentioned this project as scrapped, but just curious, is the code that existed for this prototype available on Github?

tfonzi avatar Feb 17 '22 15:02 tfonzi

Not at the moment. We have used semi-internal MSFT documentation to make it work and I probably need to get a permission from our legal to publish the source code.

lstipakov avatar Feb 17 '22 15:02 lstipakov

@tfonzi May I ask what is your use case?

lstipakov avatar Feb 17 '22 15:02 lstipakov

I'm working on using the Windows VPN API for connecting to an OpenVPN server. Seems like generally there are not a lot of resources/references available online, so any would be appreciated!

tfonzi avatar Feb 17 '22 18:02 tfonzi

I'm working on using the Windows VPN API for connecting to an OpenVPN server. Seems like generally there are not a lot of resources/references available online, so any would be appreciated!

Hi @tfonzi check my answer on issue 77 maybe it can help you... ;) With the Pre-Logon Access Provider it should be possible to use the OpenVPN GUI to establish a VPN connection before Windows Logon, like I've seen it with the CheckPoint EndPoint Security, that only opens the CheckPoint VPN Client GUI to connect to the VPN (also the same GUI that is used on the CheckPoint VPN Client after logon)...

gitnewcomer avatar Apr 12 '22 17:04 gitnewcomer

I would rather install 3-4 providers for built-in Windows 11 VPN app, than 3-4 different applications. That's why I'm willing to support this implementation financially or by helping out with code... or both

salaros avatar Jun 14 '22 05:06 salaros

I would like to add my support for a Microsoft Store UWP app! I'm looking for a client that I can install in Windows S mode. I'm not too concerned with performance as long as it works. Something similar to the Cisco AnyConnect app in the Microsoft Store would be great.

alex2364 avatar Jul 06 '22 19:07 alex2364

Closing as this as writing a UWP app for openvpn is better discussed in a new project devoted to that goal.

selvanair avatar Dec 18 '22 00:12 selvanair

I would like to add my support for a Microsoft Store UWP app! I'm looking for a client that I can install in Windows S mode. I'm not too concerned with performance as long as it works. Something similar to the Cisco AnyConnect app in the Microsoft Store would be great.

I still don't understand why people still like to use the limited Windows on S mode. It is so limited that we can't run any batch file or task planner. I would suggest to deactivate the S mode to be able to use windows in a more efficient way (window S mode is a false feeling of security anyway): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/switching-out-of-s-mode-in-windows-4f56d9be-99ec-6983-119f-031bfb28a307

gitnewcomer avatar Dec 18 '22 10:12 gitnewcomer

I would like to add my support for a Microsoft Store UWP app! I'm looking for a client that I can install in Windows S mode. I'm not too concerned with performance as long as it works. Something similar to the Cisco AnyConnect app in the Microsoft Store would be great.

I still don't understand why people still like to use the limited Windows on S mode. It is so limited that we can't run any batch file or task planner. I would suggest to deactivate the S mode to be able to use windows in a more efficient way (window S mode is a false feeling of security anyway): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/switching-out-of-s-mode-in-windows-4f56d9be-99ec-6983-119f-031bfb28a307

I still don't understand why people like to judge other people on how they use their computers when the real issue of this is the lack of UWP app in the Microsoft Store. Whether or not you use Windows S mode, everyone can benefit from a Microsoft Store UWP app. Thanks for not contributing to anything in this thread!

alex2364 avatar Dec 18 '22 20:12 alex2364

I would like to add my support for a Microsoft Store UWP app! I'm looking for a client that I can install in Windows S mode. I'm not too concerned with performance as long as it works. Something similar to the Cisco AnyConnect app in the Microsoft Store would be great.

I still don't understand why people still like to use the limited Windows on S mode. It is so limited that we can't run any batch file or task planner. I would suggest to deactivate the S mode to be able to use windows in a more efficient way (window S mode is a false feeling of security anyway): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/switching-out-of-s-mode-in-windows-4f56d9be-99ec-6983-119f-031bfb28a307

I still don't understand why people like to judge other people on how they use their computers when the real issue of this is the lack of UWP app in the Microsoft Store. Whether or not you use Windows S mode, everyone can benefit from a Microsoft Store UWP app. Thanks for not contributing to anything in this thread!

If you knew the limitations of Windows on S mode and the possibilities of OpenVPN, you should know that both are not compatible. An example: Windows on S mode does not allow the use of scripts, how do you implement the client side scripting of OpenVPN (https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/explanation-of-client-side-scripting-with-simple-examples/) even if you would have a UWP app? It doesn't make sense developing something that will only partial work. If you need OpenVPN, then you need to disable the S mode of Windows to use it, this is why Microsoft allows it and also gives you steps to do it. Did you know what happened to Windows RT? The Windows version that only allowed apps from Microsoft Store and didn't have a way to disable it like on S mode in this days? Yeah, nobody wanted to develop for it because UWP apps are limited, so Microsoft abandoned the OS. You should be glad that there is a possibility to disable the S mode on Windows 10/11... Owners of tablets with Windows RT didn't have the same luck and ended with a very limited device and almost no apps on Microsoft Store for them...

gitnewcomer avatar Dec 18 '22 23:12 gitnewcomer