[Windows 10] - [fixed] pia_manager.exe is not starting at all any longer

bhu78

Hi there!

After updating my Win 8.1 to Windows 10 my pia_manager.exe was working fine for a few days, even after several reboots.

But after latest Microsoft Patchday on Tuesday (8-11-2015) it is not working any longer at all. After starting it -> it appears as running in Taskmanager for about half a second and then closes again by itself.

Reinstall v46 did not work. Tap driver is there. And TAP-Win32 Adapter V9 seems to work (as far as I can see).

Any ideas, anybody?

[Edit:] Fixed by unblocking the pia_manager.exe process in Bitdefender Free Edition!

bhu78

Sorry for double post. Can't find a way to delete this one.

lenm

Please use the following instructions to attempt to resolve this issue.

1. Use the following steps to uninstall the Private Internet Access application:

1.1. Exit the VPN software by right clicking the icon for the VPN, and clicking Exit.

1.2. Go into Program Files [not Program Files x86] -- Locate the pia_manager folder.

1.3. Delete the pia_manager folder. DO NOT do this for any other folders or files in Program Files. Our client is self-contained, and this should not cause issues).

Now that the app itself is uninstalled, please follow these steps to remove the other parts of the application:

2. Go to Control Panel > Device Manager

2.1 If you are using Windows XP, instead, right click My Computer on your desktop. Click Properties. Click the Hardware tab. Then click the Device Manager button.

3. Under Network Adapters select TAP-Win32 Adapter

3.1 If you do not see TAP-Win32 Adapter under Network adapters, look for an Unknown Device in the list if devices. Check the properties and see if it references TAP-win9.x.x

3.2. Delete the Unknown if it is the TAP-Win32 Adapter

4. If you do see a TAP adapter located under Network adapters, right click and select Uninstall

5. On the dialogue which appears check the box next to: Delete the driver software for this device

6. Click OK

Now the client is fully uninstalled. Continue to the next steps to re-install the software:

7. Download the Private Internet Application -- https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/installer/download_installer_win -- Be sure to save the installer to your computer

8. Re-install by right clicking the downloaded installer and selecting "Run as administrator"

bhu78

Reinstall did not work. I am trying your chat.

[Edit:] Chat could not help neither. Other than to suggest to use open vpn. But I like to stay with the Client and pia_manager.exe. It was really working fine so far. So I still hope, anyone here has some better ideas!

PhyRBuRn

Hi bhu78
I've had this exact issue for the last week or so now. Has been driving me insane. Your post is the only one I have found with the exact issue I have had. I managed to fixed it tonight though. I'm not sure if a similar scenario applies to you or not, but I thought I would share, just in case it helps out.

I updated to Windows 10 from 7. No issues there at all. PIA even worked fine initially. But all of a sudden it stopped. I was looking into possible windows updates causing the issue, other software I run, but nothing seemed to make any sense. Then on my 3rd uninstall/reinstall, I noticed that my virus scanner (Bitdefender Free) was all of a sudden seeing the pia_manager.exe process as a virus. So it seems a recent virus definition update has produced a false positive for me here. The moment I unblocked and whitelisted the process in Bitdefender, PIA ran perfectly. Signing in and connecting all work as they should again.

Hopefully it's the same issue for you as it's an easy fix generally.

And to PIA; it might be something the dev team could look into

Cheers

bhu78

PhyRBuRn you are a life saver! :-D

Yes, you are right, it seems that Bitdefender did block pia_manager.exe. As soon as I unblocked the process in Bitdefender it did work again. Even so Bitdefender did not actively tell me that it blocked the process.

Here it seem Windows 10 comes into play. It seems Windows 10 sometimes is swollowing up these messages from Bitdefender.

But now the problem is solved. Thanks to you!
I knew I could count on the community!

Thanks a lot!!!!

Greetings
Bhu78

p8129380

I do not have Bitdefender
PIA will only start manually.
I pinned it to the task bar and it works fine but I would wish it to auto start.

WindowsSmith

This is what I had to do to make the PIA app auto-start and auto-connect with Windows 10.

*DISCLAIMER* If you're not at all computer savvy never turn off  "User Account Control".  If you care about a lot of the 'new' features of Windows 10 don't turn off "User Account Control".  Windows 10 is one big privacy killer so I have as many features shut off as possible.  I also have Windows 10 password protected at logon.

1) Install Private Internet Access app for Windows
- To install the Private Internet Access application, right-click the installer and Run as administrator.
- Set up your username and password and setup your encryption and server preferences.
- In the PIA app settings make sure that "Start Application at Logon" is UNCHECKED and that "Auto-Connect When App is Started" is CHECKED.

(Manually turning off User Account Control via "User Account Controls" does not work the same [ie. using the slider to turn it off in the User Account control panel] as turning off User Account Control in the registry - I don't know why that is??)
*See Disclaimer above*

2) Turn off User Account Control via the registry:
- Windows key + R (to open Run)
- Type regedit (to open registry editor)
- Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
- In the right pane, modify the value of the EnableLUA DWORD value and set it to 0

3)  Add shortcut(s) to your startup folder
- Windows Key + R (to open Run)
- Type shell:startup (to access the startup folder)
- Find your PIA app install directory and create a shortcut of this file:
pia_manager.exe
- Copy and paste or drag and drop the pia_manager.exe shortcut into the startup folder.
(If you use uTorrent then also copy/paste or drag/drop a shortcut of uTorrent.exe into the startup folder as well)

4) Restart your PC

My uTorrent app will startup before the PIA app in the system tray.  And... because I have the PIA app's Kill Switch setting on, uTorrent is running but will not connect to any tracker until the PIA app auto-connects to a VPN server.

Hope that helps any frustrated Windows 10 users!
F*** you Windows 10, seriously! Except it was free, so Thank You Microsoft,... but all I wanted was DirectX 12 for gaming.
[Edited for further clarity]

clarke8030

To get PIA to auto-start on Windows 10 I had to use the Task Scheduler and delay the start 30 seconds.

"WINDOWS/system32/taskschd.msc"

snapch23

This is the website to find out the recycle bin windows 10 here.