This Windows 10 bug can bork your VPN – but there’s a work around

A Windows 10 bug could cause some VPNs to stop working, according to the latest Microsoft security update.

The bug was reported in Microsoft’s latest Windows update advisory. It relates to the OS Remote Access Connection Manager service and affects VPNs that configured as ‘Always On’.

“The Remote Access Connection Manager (RASMAN) service may stop working and you may receive the error ‘0xc0000005’ on devices where the diagnostic data level is manually configured to the non-default setting of 0,” explained the advisory.

“This issue only occurs when a VPN profile is configured as an Always On VPN (AOVPN) connection with or without device tunnel. This does not affect manual only VPN profiles or connections.”

Related: Best VPN 2019

Confused? Well the cliff notes is that the issue will only affect you if you have your VPN set to Always On, which is generally only a thing for work users, or connect to the internet via dial-up. If, like most consumers, you have a manual only VPN connection you should be fine.

If you do get the error message then there’s also a two step workaround you can use while Microsoft works on a full fix.

To enable it got to your computer’s configuration settings, jump to Administrative Templates, the Windows Components, then Date Collection and Preview Builds. Click on Allow Telemetry and then change the value of Safe Policy Enabling to 1 (Basic), 2 (Enhanced) or 3 (Full).

Related: Best free VPN 2019

There is a second workaround detailed in the Microsoft report, but it requires a bit more technical knowledge so we’d recommend most users avoid using it.

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are a security service designed to let you anonymously surf the internet. They’re also commonly used to access geo-restricted content, like BBC iPlayer or a different country’s Netflix. A VPN does not protect you from malware, however, so even it you use one you should still install anti-virus protection.