How to Setup A VPN On Windows 10? It’s Easier Than You Think! (2023 Guide)

There are many things to look out for when choosing the right VPN for Windows 10 and then setting up a VPN for Windows and making it ready to be used. However, there are many principles to understand regarding its working.

Without any further ado, let’s begin.

Know more about VPNs!

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. When you use a VPN, your Internet service provider, you no longer know what websites you visit. Also, the websites you visit now only know the location of the VPN server. They can no longer see what actual city and country is that you’re visiting from

OK, but why? Well, there are three main benefits to using a VPN,

First off, it may give you access to additional entertainment content. Many other entertainment sources might not be available for your region, so if you could connect your location to that specific location, you can watch more movies and TV shows.

Second, you can also get around local censorship, for example, if you live in China. You don’t have access to many major platforms, but if you connect to a VPN, the government only knows that you’re connecting to a VPN, and you can now use all those different services.

Third, you also get some security and privacy benefits. Your Internet service provider no longer knows what websites you’re visiting, but doesn’t the VPN know what websites you’re visiting? Most VPNs claim that they don’t keep any logs. However, this could be changing. So, depending on your market, this may change.

Let’s look at how to set up a VPN on Windows 10.

How To Setup A VPN On Windows 10! (Through Built-in Client)

Step 1. Open Windows Settings

Start by going to the Start button on your taskbar and open Settings.

Step 2. Access Network And Internet

Doing this will open the Windows settings box. What we need to do here is click on the Network and Internet option.

Step 3. Select VPN Option

You’ll see a variety of different options available, such as Wi-Fi, airplane mode, and VPN. So, click on the VPN Option.

Step 4. Add a VPN Connection

On the left-hand side, you’ll see a little tab called VPN. Click here, and you will be displayed with two features that are already turned on; what we need to do here is click on “Add a VPN connection” given above both the features. So, let’s click on the Add a VPN connection.

A new menu of options will be provided; inside here, you can see that Windows is demanding certain specified information about your VPN provider and the connection you’re planning to make.

Step 5. Specify VPN Details

That said, now you’ve only got one choice here, and that’s the “Windows built-in.” You can’t use enough here; that’s the only one they offer.

Now, the connection name can be whatever you want to call it. So, for instance, you can call this, say, “VPN One” or “connection.” You can also choose to add the name of the VPN provider of your choice.

Up next, we need the server’s name and address. , Now, to get the server’s name and address, you will need to go to your VPN’s website or the source location which will allow you to collect the required information for these tabs.

Step 6. Choose Tunneling Protocol

For the next step, you can see that there are different options provided regarding the type of connection tunneling you’re planning to implement. Choose the options that say, ‘point to point’ tunneling that is what we’re going to be using. So, the point-to-point Tunneling Protocol is what we’re using here.

Step 7. Select Server Location

Now comes the time for you to choose the location of the server you’re going to establish a connection with. The VPN provider of your choice will have a bunch of different addresses that you can use. So, choose the place that’s closest to where you reside. You don’t want it too far away from where you are because it’s going to reduce the amount of speed that you’re going to get when using the VPN.

Next, a point-to-point tunneling protocol is our method of establishing a connection. Please ensure it is selected, and then type in the sign-in information. That said, we’ve got a couple of options here that we can use. We want to ensure that we’re choosing the right option here, as that will allow you to progress further.

Step 8. Configure Sign-In Information

Now that you’re done filling in the required information, you can connect to the VPN. To do so, click on the network and internet option in settings, or click on the Wi-Fi button in the taskbar and choose to connect with the new option with the name of your VPN connection.

Step. 9: Connect To The VPN:

What you need to connect is the username and password which is provided to you by the VPN provider. Click OK, and this will then start to connect. So now we are connected.

What Are The Advanced Options?

You’ll be able to see that we’re connected to the VPN book that we created, and we’ve also got some advanced options. You can see various options available, such as public and private, and we have the connection details of the VPN that we’re connected to as well. That said, you’ll have to read the service-providing policies wherever you are serviced. Make sure you don’t skip any essential document that pops up along the way.

You can go to the properties of your connection, and you can check its status along with many other tabs that include different information about the connection. This is the area where we can make changes to our VPN properties. You can have detailed lore at many different aspects of the connection, including security.

You will see the point-to-point connection denoted here and some other information inside here, as well as whether the connection is working or not. We also got our sharing tab there.

Now, once you’re connected to this VPN, your Internet will be your Internet speed will be reduced. Still, you can see the IP that the new server has given us is a completely different IP address to the one that we were using from our ISP; this means you are invisible to your ISP.

The way this works is to create a secure tunnel between your PC and the destination you are visiting on the Internet. And that’s basically what it’s doing to keep your actions hidden from your ISP.

That said, it’s always up to you to research and find one suitable for you. Now, if you’re happy to use a free VPN and you want something free, then there are a lot of good options for you that we will be discussing soon. The research you’ll be doing will also include all the policies regarding the VPN you choose; give them a thorough read before you start benefiting from their services.

Let’s go to the settings and return to our network and Internet sharing center. If you don’t want to use it anymore, go to the network settings and click “disconnect,” and that disconnects it from the VPN service that you’ve just connected to. If you want to Move it, you click on the Move button, and this will then Move the VPN and all the settings you set up from your PC. Now, you have to create a new one to use the VPN again, but it may be good enough for what you want to use. There may be other ones out there. here.

There are two different types of VPN that you can use. The main difference relies on the method of setting them up for us. One of them is set through this way, and the other ones, the more popular ones that we’re going to be discussing below, are set up with the help of software that is specifically installed into your computer.

5 Free VPNs For Windows 10:

Let’s look at some of the best Free VPNs available right now!

1. Opera Web Browser

First, we have the Opera web browser. This is a Chromium-based browser, just like Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, with a VPN built directly into it. And it’s entirely free to use now. Once you finish installing Opera, you’ll see a browser resembling Google Chrome. To enable the VPN, follow the steps given below:

1. Access Settings Icon

click on the settings icon in the top right-hand corner.

2. Enable VPN In Settings

When you Scroll down a little bit, you’ll see a button that allows you to enable VPN in settings. This button allows you to enable VPN in settings.

3. Acknowledge Connection Speed Warning

This will open up a prompt warning you that this may affect your connection speed. Just click on I understand, and right there, you’ll see a toggle to turn the VPN on or off.

4. Access VPN Functionality

Once you enable it, you can type in a website address, which will use the VPN. In the address field, you’ll see an icon that says VPN, and it’ll be blue, indicating that it’s currently active.

5. Select VPN Server Location

If you click on this, you can confirm that it is active. You can also see how much data has been transferred through the VPN and down at the very bot; tom you can also choose your VPN server location.

6. Return To VPN Settings

In the top right-hand corner, you can click on the settings gear, which will once again bring you back to the VPN settings; it also offers a pro version that gives you access to even more servers.

Now, you might be thinking about how they could offer this for free. A cost is involved in making the browser and then integrating the VPN.

The answer is that most browsers make money off of search engine agreements. So whenever people launch browsers, there’s a default search engine set, and search engine companies pay a significant amount for that traffic. So, by adding this feature into Opera, it makes the browser more attractive, so you get more people using it, And the more people who use it, the more money they can make off these search engine agreements.

Interestingly, some other browsers are also looking at adding free VPNs Overall, having it built into your web browser is a pretty nice option since that’s where you tend to spend most of your time online. But once again, it requires that you change your default browser. So, if you’re already using Opera or Edge, this may be a good option. But if you’re not, some other options may be better.

2. Psiphon:

best free VPN for windows 10

And number two, we have the app Psiphon, originally developed in the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Its main goal is to help you get around Internet censorship on different websites. You can install it on pretty much any major platform. The neat thing about the Windows variant is it’ll download as an “.EXE”, but when you click on it, it will simply run it, and it doesn’t install anything on your computer, so it’s very lightweight.

Once you launch the app, it’ll automatically connect to one of their servers. You’ll also see a popup browser window with ads on it. So, this is one of the ways that they monetize their traffic. But once you close that out, you’ll no longer see any awn below. You can choose a server, and you can choose any one of their servers for free. Now, one thing you might notice when you use Psiphon is the Speeds are somewhat limited, and it tends to crawl along over on the left-hand side of your screen.

3. ProtonVPN

Next, we have one of my favorite free VPN providers, It’s Proton VPN. A Switzerland-based company, Proton Technologies, owns this. You might have heard of them before; It’s the same company behind ProtonMail. A very popular end-to-end encrypted e-mail service. On their website, you’ll see the free plan alongside several premium paid plans. So why do they offer a free plan, and how do they make money from it? Well, it’s kind of like a sales funnel. They believe that some percentage of users who sign up for a free plan will then go on and purchase a premium plan. Once you sign up on their website, you can click on download, and you can download their VPN on pretty much all the major platforms.

Once you’ve finished downloading, you’ll see a user-friendly interface. Over there, you can choose the server that you want to connect to. Also, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of functionality there, but when you click to use them, most of the time, you’ll be reminded that they are premium options and are unavailable.

Now, out of all the free VPN services, they give unlimited data. Still, once again, you’ll be reminded that there are premium features you could be taking advantage of, as this drives most of their revenue generation.

4. PrivadoVPN:

Next, we have Privado VPN. This is another Switzerland-based company. Switzerland has solid privacy laws that attract companies like these. Privado VPN is relatively new. They started in 2019, but they have a very nice free offer on their website. Their website will show you all of the different plans. Similar to Proton VPN, the hope here is that some number of people who choose the free plan will end up upgrading and going with the premium plan.

Once you sign up, you can then download the VPN on any of the major platforms, just like with Proton and some of the other options that we’ve looked at. Once you launch the app, you can connect to the VPN, and here, you can choose what server you want to connect to for free. You get twelve different servers. Now. All in all, this is a pretty good option. You get 10 gigabytes of use, but what most people like is for those 10 gigabytes, you get the full speed of the premium service.

5. Hotspot Shield

And this brings us to #5. This is the last free VPN service that we’re looking at, and it’s Hotspot Shield. This is owned by a Boston-based company called Orem. When you land on their home page, up on the top navigation bar, and click on pricing, you’ll see the free plan alongside their premium plans. And their VPN is running, hoping that some users will upgrade to premium after using their free plan.

Once you finish downloading and installing, you’ll see the user-friendly interface. Now, with their type of service, people don’t normally use it as you only get 500 megabytes of data per day, which works out to 15 gigabytes per month, but people don’t like the daily restriction.

You also only get speeds up to two megabits per second, and especially if you’re trying to stream content, that’s just not very much. And worst of all, you can Only Connect to one server, so it tends to be the closest to you. So, if you’re, say, trying to watch Netflix content in another market, you won’t be able to do that. But all at all, if you want to browse the web and get some of those privacy benefits, this is an OK option.

Detailed Pros and Cons of Using a VPN:

Using a VPN is helpful in a lot of ways. But there are times when you may not want to use a VPN, and we’ll be showcasing those situations:

Pros Of Using A VPN On Windows:

But first, let’s discuss the pros of using a VPN.

Encrypt all stolen sensitive data or hack into your accounts, especially if you’re on public Wi-Fi.
Another Pro is access to restricted content. Let’s say you’re in a restrictive country, and some content is censored from your network. You can connect to a VPN server, which will be encrypted and give you access to websites and services that may not be available in your country.
Protection from Wi-Fi snooping because when you connect to Wi-Fi hotspots, your data can be vulnerable to snooping by other users. The VPN encrypts your internet traffic, making it much harder for anyone to intercept your data.
Increased anonymity because by routing your traffic through a VPN server, you can hide your IP address, which makes it much harder for websites and services to track your online activity, and it also minimizes targeted advertising servers. You can hide your IP address, which makes it much harder for websites and services to track your online activity, and it also minimizes targeted advertising.
The final pro for using a VPN is the improved online experience by reducing lag, improving speeds, and bypassing ISP throttling. Now, you can reduce lag if you’re particularly experiencing terrible lag when trying to play games on your ISP servers.
You can connect to the VPN server that’s closest to your game server to improve ping, hopefully, and you can improve your speed if the ISP throttles your speed after reaching a specific daily quota because a lot of ISPs do that, and they decrease it significantly if you reach let’s say the 20 GB quota of the Internet.

Cons Of Using A VPN On Windows:

Now, one con of using a VPN is reduced speed; the first is reduced speed because encrypting your traffic and routing it through a VPN can slow down your Internet speeds, especially if the server is located far away
Another con is possible trust issues. Since VPN providers have access to your Internet traffic, it’s important to choose a reputable provider that you trust because some providers might collect data activities and sell it to third parties, especially free or unreliable.
The third column is just configuration incompatibility issues because configuring a VPN can be challenging, especially for less technical users, and some devices might not even be compatible with VPNs, in which case you will have to install a VPN on your router and your router must be compatible with VPNs. So on and so forth.
The 4th is potentially the cost because many VPNs charge a monthly fee for their services, which can add over time. But again, if you want to save as much money as possible, go for the longest-term plan. This will save you a whole lot more money.
And, of course, you do have different price ranges. You should always investigate and determine which one provides the best cost-to-performance ratio and opt for that one.
The final con is about potential legal issues because, depending on the laws of your country, using a VPN may be illegal and you could face potential penalties, especially if you’re using a VPN to engage in unlawful activities. Given it’s considered potentially unlawful in your country, be sure to check your local laws and make sure that everything that you’re doing, even when you’re connected to the VPN, is within the bounds of the law.

Conclusion:

Using a VPN has many benefits. However, setting one up for use is not that simple. There are two total types of VPN, the first one being integrated into the VPN on Windows 10, which has a separate method of being set up, and the second one is first installed into the computer as software and further utilizes the resources of the host computer.

The integration one is lengthy and difficult to understand, and the installation one is rather straightforward. There are many circumstances where certain free VPNs can hinder your overall surfing experience. Their cons, along with the benefits of VPNs, have also been showcased above.