Internet Services from KKoncepts

I've wanted for some time to create my own custom installer for the Windows OpenVPN client. Up until now we've told clients to download the software and then given them the certificates and configuration files they needed along with instructions on how to install them. But some people still end up unable to use the VPN, which means more support calls for us.

So a custom openvpn installer that put all the certs, config files, etc. in the right place means it should "just work". Plus then we could create custom shortcuts/icons that would automatically connect rather than what happens now, which is folks start the GUI and nothing appears to happen. You need to right-click on the icon in the taskbar bar (which looks a lot like the other network icons) and choose "Connect".

I tried once before last fall, getting the openvpn sources and attempting to compile it on Windows. But I gave up looking at all the prerequistics I had to install, especially the Windows Driver Kit. All I want is to take the files that are there in the OpenVPN installer and repackage them a bit. I don't want to compile new versions or change anything other than include some extra files and shortcuts.

There are nicely packaged zip files for doing exactly that for older versions of openvpn here. But we need a newer version for the Vista fixes.

Fortunately I recently found this post which got me started.

I used 7zip instead of "Total Commander" to extract the files from the openvpn 2.1.1 installer, but other than that I followed his instructions pretty closely. It still took a while to get everything in the right place because some of the file names and file locations have changed between 2.1_rcX and 2.1.1, but eventually I got everything in the right place so NSIS can create an installer. I edited the NSIS install script to include our certificates and config files, changed around some shortcuts, and everything works just like I had hoped! :-)

If you're interested in rolling your own installer for openvpn 2.1.1, then I've attached a zip file of my installer sources to this blog. To roll your own you'll need to

• Download the installer sources from the "Attachments" section at the bottom of this post and unzip them somewhere on your system.
• Download and install NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Install System) from here.
• In the installer sources you unzipped, include any files you want to include and then edit "install-win32\openvpn.nsi" and make any changes that you like.
• Run NSIS to compile a new openvpn 2.1.1 installer.

A few notes:

• I built the installer sources on XP and we've only tested this on XP and Vista (both 32-bit). Both work well, but other than that I don't know if it will work.
• This is ONLY the installer sources. You can't compile from these. You'll need the full openvpn sources to compile. But if all you want to do is create your own custom installer, this should work. (Let me know if doesn't; maybe we can fix it.)
• This uses the openvpn gui from openvpn.se which is included in the openvpn source. The openvpn.nsi installer script references a new XGUI, but the binary was not included in the openvpn installer that I used to extract the files from, so I've not enabled it.