Cisco AnyConnect - Windows 8 - The VPN client driver encountered an error. Please restart your computer or device, then try again error

Symptom: You receive the following error when trying to establish a connection with the Cisco AnyConnect client on Windows 8 x64.

Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client - The VPN client driver encountered an error.  Please restart your computer or device then try again error

Solution:

Option 1: PowerShell Method

  1. Go to the Windows 8 Start screen, search for PowerShell, Run as an Administrator
    Windows 8 - Search - powershell - run as administrator
  2. Execute the following powershell command
    1. Set-ItemProperty -Path HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpnva -Name DisplayName -Value ‘Cisco AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64‘
      PowerShell-Set-vpnva-DisplayName-Cisco-AnyConnect-VPN
  3. Exit and reopen the Cisco AnyConnect Program

Option 2: Registry Editor GUI Method

  1. Go to the Windows 8 Start screen, search for regedit, right click Run as administrator
    Windows 8 - Search - regedit - Run as administrator
  2. Navigate to the following registry key
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\vpnva
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-System-CurrentControlSet-Services-vpnva
  3. Double cick on the DisplayName value and replace the value with Cisco AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-System-CurrentControlSet-Services-vpnva - DisplayName - Cisco AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-System-CurrentControlSet-Services-vpnva - DisplayName - Cisco AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64 - regedit
  4. Exit and reopen the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client

4 thoughts on “Cisco AnyConnect - Windows 8 - The VPN client driver encountered an error. Please restart your computer or device, then try again error

  1. Allen Jackson

    Thanks for posting this! Still stuck with the cryptic "The client agent has encountered an error." but it worked great in 7860. The client hangs until terminated with Task Manager. Back to the Windows 7 laptop until I can resolve.

    Nice job though!

    Reply
    1. Jack Post author

      Hey Allen,

      As another side note, I have also seen antivirus products affect the way the client works in Windows 7 up. In particiular, we saw the scanning engine of Microsoft's System Center Endpoint Protection prompt a lot of issues with the Cisco VPN clients. Adding an exclusion to the program files folder did the trick for us.

      Hope this helps!
      Jack

      Reply
  2. CiscoGuy

    The issue could be that the VPNagent is referencing an old VA driver to VaConn. The workaround is to uninstall the client, remove all files and references and then reinstall the driver.

    If you look up in Anyconnect DART, if you see that it can't find the vpnva64.sys, that's the problem. You'll want to ensure your ASA has the updated AnyConnect too. The latest version that fixes this is 3.1.06079.

    If you have a CCO, you can find this known bug under CSCup30116.

    Reply

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