How can I streamline using Windows 10 OpenVPN with multiple VPN services?

The obvious GUI-supported method of setting up OpenVPN freeware to work
with config files from multiple VPN services is to add a separate filename
extension for each free VPN service that you may happen to be using.

An example would be to have a stack of OpenVPN config files in a single
config directory where for VPN service 1 the filename is of the format
IPaddress1.ovpn.server1, IPaddress2.ovpn.server1 & IPaddress3.ovpn.server1,
etc.

In that same OpenVPN config directory would be other config files for VPN
service 2 such as IPaddress4.ovpn.server2, IPaddress5.ovpn.server2 &
IPaddress6.ovpn.server2, etc.

And yet more files in that config directory for VPN service 3 such as
IPaddress7.ovpn.server3, IPaddress8.ovpn.server3 & IPaddress9.ovpn.server3,
and so on.

NOTE that almost always the files arrive to you in that format above ending
with the "ovpn" extension (which is why it's retained here, for fewer
renaming steps).

The problem with that suggested default OpenVPN GUI method is that it takes
an inordinate series of rather repetitively mundane steps to switch from
server 1 to server 2 using that default OpenVPN GUI method. The OpenVPN gui
supplies _zero_ ways to reduce the number of steps (as far as I can tell).

Hence, to use that OpenVPN supported GUI method of switching between VPN
services, you have to fist left click in the Windows notification arrow to
then right click on the OpenVPN running-hardware icon and then left click
and scroll down the popup menu list to the "Settings" option and then in
the box that pops up you have to manually change the tab and then you have
to manually change the extension from server1 to server2 and then you have
to hit OK.

That supported method works but then you have to do the first steps all
over again to select the configuration file for the next service where the
problem is that NONE of those unnecessarily redundent steps can be reduced.

For example, the tab isn't remembered so you have to start all over again.
If there was an option to _default_ to the correct tab, for example, that
would save an unnecessary step - but that doesn't exist (as far as I know).

Every time you have to hit _all_ those steps just to switch servers.

On the other hand, it's fewer steps but still too many steps if you give up
on the OpenVPN GUI altogether, but then all the work is in the front end,
and even then you _still_ have too many manual steps if you put all your
config files for VPN service 1 in one directory, and all your config files
for VPN service 2 in another directory, and you do the same for VPN service
3, etc (or even if you put all the config files in the same directory - but
then you can't as easily tell them apart - so that's why I separate VPN
config files into server-related folder names).

Once you have the config files in separate service-related directories and
after you've set up the *.ovpn extension to open in openvpn.exe instead of
in openvpnserv.exe, then you can manually edit a *.bat batch command file
to run the commands upon execution as administrator in Windows.
set vpncmd=C:\path\to\openvpn\bin\openvpn.exe
set vpndir=C:\path\to\server1\config\dir\
set vpnfile=ipaddress1.server1.ovpn
cd %vpndir%
%vpncmd% %vpndir%%vpnfile%

Once you have that set up and maintained, what you do manually to switch
from one VPN service to another is you right click on the desired service's
*.bat batch file and select from the resulting
Windows pop-up menu "Run as administrator" and then "Yes" (because Windows
requires administrative access to change the routing table) and you wait
for the confirmation of connection.

The problem is _both_ these methods are (IMHO) far too many manual steps.
a. All you want to do is switch VPN services from 1 to 2 or to 3.
b. That means disconnecting from the existing VPN service
c. And reconnecting to the new VPN service

How can I streamline using OpenVPN with multiple VPN services?

Since I'm not the first person who has multiple VPN services, what do you
do on Windows to cull the number of steps from that as shown above to
switch between various VPN services?

On Sun, 23 Oct 2022 21:35:33 +0100, Andy Burnelli wrote:
[snip]
> The problem is _both_ these methods are (IMHO) far too many manual steps.

As long as a software doesn't provide the task that you need, you'll have to
do it manually; and that assuming it's possible in the first place.

> a. All you want to do is switch VPN services from 1 to 2 or to 3.

If the software doesn't provide any automatable command to simply switch to
other VPN service, then you'd have to stop it, then start a different one.
Or ask the software developer to implement th needed command.

> b. That means disconnecting from the existing VPN service
> c. And reconnecting to the new VPN service

That's what "switch" is meant to be. If you don't want to start another VPN
service, then you'd just have to start another. Again, assuming it's
possible in the first place. i.e. whether the VPN client software allow
multiple instances or not.