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danpman

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Multiple VPN clients messing with my computer's settings?

I am a consultant who works with multiple clients, who use different VPN clients.  I currently have OpenVPN, Cisco AnyConnect, and WatchGuard VPN clients installed on my computer.

I am experiencing the following three symptoms.  The first is merely a nuisance, the second is really causing me problems, and I'm not sure what effect the third has.  Any advice would be REALLY appreciated.
1. When I log on with my OpenVPN Client and attempt to make a connection to a server, an incorrect domain is appended to the server name.  For example, If I ping client 1 from the command line, the server that is pinged is client1.wrongdomain.com.  Wrongdomain.com is a client that I connect to using Cisco AnyConnect and happens to be the first client that I connected to with AnyConnect.  I can work around this by making entries in my HOSTS file.  
2. At times, Windows Explorer 'hangs'.  I can navigate existing directories, but any time that I attempt to do any actions with a context menu (right click --> Open With, or right click --> New Folder, Windows Explorer completely locks up for 10-15 minutes.  I can create directories using the command prompt, but I really need the context menus  to work.  This problem is intermittent, but can only be solved by a hard shutdown - holding the power button down.
3. At times I get a pop-up window at the bottom right of the screen that tell me that the computer was unable to log in with administrator privileges.  This message will go away after 2 or 3 reboots.

I use a Dell XPS 15 (2013 version) with Windows 10 Professional.  I have tried to resolve this multiple ways - from completely resetting to the factory default to ordering a replacement laptop.

Has anyone run into this before and does anyone have any ideas on how to resolve?

-Dan
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John
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It is normally bad practice to run more than one VPN client on one machine. In all (small number of) cases where I have done this, the services for all unused VPN clients had to be disabled and the services for the current client must be enabled.

You need to disable / enable services each time you change clients.
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I'd suggest creating a virtual machine for each of your clients.
I have tried that and a number of clients do not work within Virtual Machines. Some do, a number do not. However, it is worth a try.
Another option would be to install multiple instances of Windows....
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Qlemo
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