Establish a VPN connection prior to logon to Vista

Haven't tried with Vista, but with all other Windows operating sytem versions, if you join the machine to the domain, and install the VPN client, at logon there will be an option to logon using Dial-up. Choose this, and it will give you the option to connect by your VPN connection, before logon, so that logon scripts and Group policy are applied.

If that is not an option Microsoft has 2 tools; RASDial and AutoDial that you may be able to make use of:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/c3f953ab-2af4-4811-9c70-9a67e5237e121033.mspx?mfr=true
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/21855010/Automatically-Connecting-a-VPN-before-a-backup.html#16864544

Yes, that's the way I've always done it on XP; however, I can find no such option on Vista's logon screen...even though the machine is already joined to the domain and the VPN connection is already created.  The VPN connection works fine if I login first...I just can't figure out how to activate the connection before (or during) logon.  

I'll look at the two links to see if that is a solution.  

Thanks!

Three more pieces of information:  

1)  Just to clarify - The Vista edition is "Business".  
2)  I'm just using the built-in PPTP VPN capabilities that are built-in to Vista; I'm not trying to do anything fancy with any third party VPN clients.  
2)  Interesting development - I setup a Dial-up network adapter (i.e. a modem).  At the Vista logon screen I now get an option to establish a network connection before I log in.  This is presumably equivalent to the Windows XP option that allowed you to establish a dial-up/vpn connection prior to logon.  All good, right?  Wrong!  When I click on the option to establish a network connection at the Windows logon screen, the only "connection" that shows up is the dial-up adapter...the three VPN connections that I've created don't even show up in the list.  So, I'm still no closer to getting a pre-logon VPN connection going.  

That was it!  Two key things:  

1)  When creating the PPTP connection you have to check the box that says, "Allow other people to use this connection."  
2)  After performing step one you have to reboot the machine to get the option to show up.  Just logging out doesn't do it.  

At one point I had created a VPN connection using the "Allow other people to use this connection" to see if it would make a difference, but in my testing I just logged out to test it - the connection didn't show up, so I thought it made no difference.  This time I re-created the connection and then rebooted the computer...walah - the VPN connection was in the list.  

Thanks for the help!!

Glad to hear it worked for you.
Interesting, I know it says you have to reboot, but being lazy, I just tried it here and did not have to.
Thanks whc4.
Cheers !
--Rob

to go off this, how does one active this feature if the user forgot his domain password and is locked out?
I can change his password on the domain, but since he can not configure his laptop, how can I get him to start the VPN prior?
How does Vista handle remote users who forget their password if these steps were not performed ahead of time?

kon21,

My only idea would be to log in locally to the machine using a local admin account.  Then you could create the VPN connection, reboot, and perform the procedure above.