When I recently tried to install the Cisco VPN Client on my Windows 8 laptop, the installation went OK but all my attempts to connect to our office network (which is based around a Cisco UC540 unit, part of the UC500 unified communications series) failed with an error:
Reason 442: Failed to Enable Virtual Adapter
I tried compatibility mode, running as an administrator and also the registry fix found here:
- Click Start and type regedit in the Search field and hit enter
- Navigate to HKLM > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > CVirtA
- Find the String Value called DisplayName
- Right click and select Modify from the context menu.
- In Value data, remove @oemX.inf,%CVirtA_Desc%;. The Value data should only contain Cisco Systems VPN Adapter for 64-bit Windows.
- Click Ok.
- Close Registry Editor.
- Retry your Cisco VPN Client connection.
Unfortunately this didn’t work for me either, I tried a restart, double checked but no luck. At this point I decided to give ShrewSoft VPN a go, it’s a free download from here: http://www.shrew.net/download/vpn, although a professional version is available with more features.
The installation went through with out any hitches and best of all, you can import Cisco VPN Client profiles straight in to it, I imported mine, entered my login and hey presto – it worked straight out the box.
