Windows 10: My Win 10 desktop was unable to communicate with my wi-fi printer/VPN

My Windows 10 computer was unable to communicate with my wi-fi printer.

After 2 months of trying to figure out the problem, including contacting the manufacturers of my printer, my router, and my ISP, I stumbled on the problem.

I have a VPN. There is a setting on it that turns on LAN invisibility. EVEN THOUGH I HAD THE VPN TURNED OFF, it was still actively blocking my LAN.

I wanted to share this because NOBODY could figure out what the problem was. I'm hoping this information will help others avoid the headaches I had to deal with.

:)

 

Windows 10: How to Show VPN on Wi-Fi list (like Win 8 & 8.1)

In Windows 8.0 and 8.1, VPN connections showed up when you clicked the Wi-Fi connection icon


on the task bar and offered connect/disconnect directly from that context menu (A total of 3 clicks.)

In Windows 10, multiple steps are required to first access your existing VPN connections (5 clicks):

• click the
  
  icon
  
• click Network Settings
• click VPN
• click your connection
• click Connect.

This seems to add it to the menu but has to be repeated for each connection. Now, once it's there, connecting/disconnecting is still a multi-step process vs. the 2 steps it took in previous versions:

• click the Wi-Fi icon
• click the VPN connection (Network Center launches)
• click the VPN connection again, this time in the Network Center
• click Connect or Disconnect

Is it possible to configure Windows 10 in such a way as to minimize these steps?

 

Printer on my wi-fi not found by desktop since upgrading to Windows 10

My HP Envy printer is on my home Wi-Fi network. It has always worked with Windows 8.1 on both my laptop and my desktop. My Lenovo desktop has been updated to Windows 10. Although the desktop connects to my home Wi-Fi and accesses the internet with no
problem, when I try to print, my HP printer does not appear on the list of optional printers and the network connection is cut off. I've gone through all the trouble shooting steps, but when it gets to finding my printer, it cannot be found. Meanwhile my
laptop which is still on 8.1 has no problem in finding the printer and successfully printing. I'm hesitant to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10 until I get my desktop problem resolved.

 

Unable to connect to Wi Fi

I have just re-set my spare Windows 10 desktop computer, but am now unable to connect to wi fi and note that the Wi-Fi option in "settings" has now disappeared.

Can any one suggest a way of resolving this problem please?