A few times a day, my VPN connection will disconnect. When I attempt to reconnect I get an error that says my username and password is not recognized.
To resolve this, I need to go into the settings for my VPN adapter, and uncheck the box that says "Automatically use my Windows logon name and password". I also change the VPN type from Automatic to SSTP.
After making these changes, I am able to connect to the VPN again. (I have to reeneter my credentials). A few hours later, my VPN will disconnect, and I have to repeat this process all over again.
What is making Windows revert these settings? Is there anything I can do to fix this.
My IT department insists this is a problem with my PC, and not a problem with the VPN service.
I am using Windows 10 Pro 20H2. I am not connected to a domain.
101 Answer
Some software is likely trafficking with the settings of the VPN, enabling the option of "Automatically use my Windows logon name and password", so that after a disconnection the VPN reconnects using the wrong credentials.
The VPN settings file is a .pbk file found at:
Current user:
%AppData%\Microsoft\Network\Connections\PbkAll users:
%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk
The file and/or sub-folders may be hidden, so Explorer may need to be set to show hidden files in order to locate the file.
Once the .pbk file is found, you could try to set it to read-only or traffic its permissions so only you can modify it (taking a backup copy is recommended).
If you wish to track down the program that does the change (knowing that the answer might simply be "Windows"), you may try the following resources:
- Detect what process is changing a file on Windows
- How can I find out which process and user is modifying a file?
