Direct Access and Virtual Smartcard

I am a huge fan of DirectAccess – especially as a user. This means mainly, that I love it as a user as I do not have to care anymore about where I am connected – my notebook immediately connects to our Microsoft Corporation's network. Ages ago, when we ran the pilot I was already able to join and I am using it since then.

However, in the initial days of Windows 8, our internal pilot was limited to our domain at headquarters and I needed to use VPN again L

Since a few days we rolled out DirectAccess for Windows 8 – a really great experience as we now leverage a new functionality of Windows 8 as well: Virtual Smartcards. This means for me as a user, I had to VPN in, visit a website and request a certificate. This certificate request was signed by my "real" smartcard and then the private key is stores in my TPM in my slate.

Now, DA is seamless again and even with strong authentication.

Cool!!

Roger