We are doing internally a Windows 10 pilot. After lot’s of tests and uses cases I decided to upgrade my Surface 3 Pro test device as well. ‘No risk, no fun‘!

In this phase I’ve made checks on different devices with different operating systems and different applications. The Windows 10  in-place upgrade scenario is just straight forward and then my productive application are still working properly.

So I started to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. After this process was done I was finding that all discovered wireless networks go missing:

My network adapters are missing as well:

Ok, I though ‘let’s go and ask Google‘.

Microsoft has now provided a workaround involves deleting a registry key and running the network configuration utility. In may case it didn’t solve the issue.

The problem results from having VPN software that is not quite Windows 10 compatible when the upgrade is performed. As of now, Microsoft has heard reports about the Cisco VPN client and the SonicWall Global VPN client specifically. Updated versions should already be available.

So I had to recovery my system before I start again the upgrade. I rolled back the Windows 10 to the Windows 8.1 version (you can read my previous post how I did).

After successfully rollback I removed both Cisco applications:

I know that the Cisco Systems VPN Client not supported anymore, but I need this software to join to our test environment.

After this small cleanup I started the Windows 10 upgrade again and choose the first option with crossed-finger:

I made after a second test and if you choose the second option (even with the third one) for the upgrade, you will get a clean operating system without apps. In this scenario you won’t have any wireless issue. Trust me! 🙂

After re-upgrading I got my networks again:

I was really happy for this upgrade and so I didn’t have to stay on the Windows 8.1.

UPDATE: after this workaround you can install Cisco AnyConnect Client properly, BUT for the older VPN client you will get an installation issue. For the resolution I wrote a short post here.