I have a Windows 10 Pro machine, and my job requires a VPN connection. My job has sent me an OpenVPN connection profile (.ovpn) file. I want to create a separate user account for my job that would be allowed to use this connection, while other users should use the standard network interface. Could you please clarify if starting the VPN client on one user changes the routes globally? And if it does, how can I solve this problem and isolate the OpenVPN connection for one user only?
It seems that the only solution that could work under Windows 10 is to create a Hyper-V machine with a separate network switch. Alternatively, if you are using Windows 11, you can create a sandbox (In Windows 11, version 22H2, your data will persist through a restart initiated from inside the virtualized environment). If you know of any other lightweight solutions, please let me know.
Routes are implemented globally, yes.
I have no idea how you could possibly separate it.
Your question is the same as; I have 2 network connections and one user must use connection 1 and the other must use connection 2. How? I don’t know of any way.
At best you could ensure you stop the OpenVPN connection and log off from account A, and then log on to account B, which doesn’t have access to that connection profile in OpenVPN, so can’t start the connection.
I hope this help you.
As you have a Single session os only one user can be logged in at once, but make sure to always use the "sign out: option when you switch to your work account. Never use “switch user”.
Don’t use the vpn daemon or set it to manual start option and start it by hand. You can Use “cmd” to start a vpn connection. When you close the window it is terminated.
If you want to be 110% save reboot your pc.
You might have some daemons running you want to disable with a script when your work user logs in. You can use local group policy for this. (Google it)
Your work user should not be an administrator on your machine.