Abstract
I am using a VPN (proxy) to improve the access performance to global websites. There was a minor issue that I struggled with for a long time. I could not log in to any Microsoft account when using a VPN. The solution is to add the Your account to the loopback exemption. However, I’ll explain the reason in this post.
Explanation
Microsoft used a different way to run applications on Windows 8 and later versions. It is called AppContainers. This change leads to some applications not working with VPN (proxy) since it blocks some data exchanges between applications. The change is for security reasons. It basically isolates each application to block the communication on the local computer level.
But, Microsoft offers a way to exempt applications for troubleshooting purposes. Hence, adding the applications to the exemption work around the problem.
Following are some useful commands for exemption with Windows native commands:
# Show a list of loopback exemption
CheckNetIsolation.exe LoopbackExempt -s
# Add an application to the exemption
CheckNetIsolation.exe LoopbackExempt –a –n=<app name>
It’s not easy to figure out the application name or ID. You should use Process Explorer. However, you can also download the 3rd party tool “Windows 8 AppContainer Loopback Utility” to configure it.
