Automatically Open VPN Connection on Startup

In pre-Windows 7 versions of Windows, I was able to setup a VPN connection in Networking and Sharing in the control panel and add a shortcut to that connection in the "Startup" folder. This allowed the VPN connection to connect automatically on startup.

But now, I have tried all methods outlined in the following thread, but none of them work for a VPN connection.

Startup Programs - Change

Any ideas how to get a Windows VPN connection to connect automatically on startup?

notsograymatter said:

Apparently you can use "rasdial" via a batch file to do this. I'm not sure exactly how, but batch files are fairly straight forward so it'd shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Using rasdial: Networking and Communications

Thanks, but I think rasdial is more related to dialing into a network through the phone line . . . instead of connecting with a VPN connection across the internet. And the 2nd link was a dead end as well since it also deals with rasdial. These are suggestions, but it seems like the people making these suggestions have never actually made it work in real life.

Ok, I stand corrected, I was able to get a VPN connection to launch using rasdial via a command prompt. The original problem was that the VPN connection had a space in the name and rasdial didn't like this. Once I eliminated the space, I was able to connect by typing rasdial VPNNAME USERNAME PASSWORD.

BUT . . . this did NOT work when using a batch file and adding that batch file to task scheduler. I created a batch file by opening notepad, typing in "rasdial.exe VPNNAME USERNAME PASSWORD" (no quotes) and saving the file as vpn.bat and then opening task scheduler and referencing that file. There were 2 problems with this method.

1. The VPN username and password are stored as plain text on my computer. Not very secure!
2. The scheduled task failed with the following error even though I am using an administrator account.

ERROR: The operation being requested was not performed because the user has not logged on to the network. The specified service does not exist. (0x800704DD)