Max Glenister

As of tomorrow I’m going to be switching to working remotely. Same job, just from the comfort of my home office (and without 2-3 hours of commute daily!). With this change I figure I’ll have about 8-10 hours of extra time per week to work on things.

So I’ve got a couple of posts lined up for my blog, and some big plans for UX of VR.

As to the technical side of working from home, I find myself predominantly using Windows 10 for this, and connecting to work over VPN.

Windows lacks a nice way to manage VPN connections and indicate VPN connection status – it’s all click 10 times and then cross your fingers. I’ve been digging around for a solution to this, and have settled on a couple of oldish Windows apps to make this nicer:

1. VPN Connection Indicator
2. Tray Tools 2000

The first simply indicates if you’re connected to a VPN or not, the second allows you to make custom command icons for the system tray.

I’ve got two commands set up in Tray Tools:

First, single-click connect to VPN. This uses the built-in rasdial.exe that comes as part of Windows since forever. You simply run that along with the name of the VPN to connect to, and it connects:

C:\Windows\System32\rasdial.exe "Name Of Your VPN"

Second, single-click disconnect from VPN. This uses the built-in rasphone.exe that also comes as part of Windwos since forever. Again you just run this with the name of the VPN to disconnect from, and the -h flag:

C:\Windows\System32\rasphone.exe -h "Name Of Your VPN"

Right now I’m using some of the 90s-esque icons that come bundled with Tray Tools, but I think I’m going to make something a bit nicer if I get bored.