Upgraded your operating system to Windows 10 and found that the Cisco VPN Client no longer works? Well, that’s the hard truth, but don’t worry since we have got you covered.
It is true that Cisco VPN Client has been discontinued since 2011, i.e. nearly 7 years, yet it is still used by many. The problem is that Windows 10 doesn’t support it. The Official Cisco website claims the client to only work till Windows 7, so if you happened to run it on your Windows 7 or even luckily Windows 8/Windows 8.1, all you need is a workaround to make it possible to run on Cisco VPN Client.
If you don’t want to involve yourself in all the hassle, then you can simply do what Cisco itself recommends: Install the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client v4.x. This will not only serve your VPN needs but also serve to prevent malware attacks and other functions. The only caveat is that it can be a bit heavy, and not everyone wants a whole suite of features: Just a good VPN should do, and the Cisco VPN Client is one such clean software.
Let’s start by Installing the right software
It should be noted that this workaround is confirmed to work for build version 15063 of Windows 10. For later versions, there is no guarantee if it would work, therefore, steer away from updating your PC. If you are planning on updating to the 15063 build version a.k.a Creator’s Update, you should first uninstall the Cisco VPN Client if you have already set it up. This is to avoid any registry troubles later on.
So let’s start: First download the Sonic Wall VPN client, which you can find here. When its finished downloading, double click on the installation file and run through the setup. Be sure to download the correct version i.e. 32 bit or 64 bit version for your PC, though considering that 32 bit PC is obsolete now, you are looking at a 64 bit version.
When the installation is finished, you can download the Cisco VPN Client from the following Dropbox link.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8xkijxtnu2lbdev/vpnclient-winx64-msi-5.0.07.0440-k9.exe?dl=0
You do not need to sign up for an account at Dropbox for this. Just download the executable file, even if the Web server prompts you to sign up. Now, just use any file compression software, for instance, WinZip or 7-zip to extract the contents of the downloaded file.
Probably, you won’t be able to open the MST file which shall be extracted, but luckily there is a quick solution. Just Right Click on the file and rename the file name extension from MST to MSI.
Now you can simply double click on the newly converted MSI setup file, named vpnclient_setup.msi. This will lead you to the installation setup and just go through the setup for installing the VPN Client.
Tweaking the Registry
It isn’t just this easy, you have to play with the Registry settings too. Maybe you never got to tweak with the registry settings, but this time, you will have to. To open the registry editor, just Press “Windows + R” key the same time, which will open up the Run Box. Type in Regedit and press Enter. This will open up the registry.
Find the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Click the drop down icon and do the same for System, CurrentControlSet, Services, and finally, CVirtA.
Once you are there, just select Display Name and double click. In the pop-up that emerges, change the value data to Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 32-bit users and Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows for the 64 bit version of Windows.
Just to make things clear, this is what you should expect the original value data entry to look like:
32-bit (x86): @oem8.ifn,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter
64-bit (x64): @oem8.ifn,%CVirtA_Desc%;Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows
This was all you needed to do. Just restart your Windows (I repeat, restart, not Shutdown and PowerOn), and you shall be good to go. Quite Easy, No?