Windows 10 VPN Connect Button Cumbersome

I installed Win 10 Pro and added a Windows VPN connection.

When I press the network icon in lower right edge, I see all my connections including my VPN connection.

However, when I click on it, the settings app opens and only then can I click "Connect."

That's so cumbersome! Is there any way to make the connect/disconnect button show up with my list of networks like so:

Solution 1:

I'm amazed that the Windows experience seems to be moving further and further away from what is surely one of the most fundamental aspects of computing: the ability to launch a program or sequence with a single action.

For sure, Windows 10 is like a breath of fresh air after Windows 8, but it has some awful characteristics.

Requiring us to go through a whole series of clicks, dialogs and selections simply to connect our VPN is not my idea of progress. This is not the way I want to use Windows. But I'm less and less able to use to use Windows my way under today's Windows experience, forced more and more to do things in cumbersome ways.

Affiliation disclosure per our site etiquette: this answer involves freeware I wrote.

Frustrated by the Windows VPN UI, I recently wrote a little app that sits in the system tray and manages the VPN my way:

If this sounds like your way to use a Windows VPN... enjoy!

Solution 2:

The best way I can find (this is a really old trick) is to create a new shortcut to "c:\windows\system32\rasdial.exe (your vpn connection name)". The bummer is that you'll either need to go thru the same extra clicks above to end the connection or create a second shortcut with the /DISCONNECT switch.

More here at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14614465/establish-a-vpn-connection-in-cmd