Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
Type in the following text, and then press Enter.
In the Device Manager window, double-click Network adapters to expand it.
Right-click TAP-Windows Adapter V9, and select Properties.
On the Driver tab, click Uninstall.
If you want to uninstall the Tap Windows Adapter V9 driver, go to Program Files > Tap-Windows and double-click on uninstall.exe. Then, follow through with the on-screen prompts until you remove the driver from your system.
Network connections
Right-click on the WAN Miniport named “ExpressVPN”, and click on Delete. Moreover, delete other similar connections, such as “ExpressVPN TAP Adapter”.
Click Start (or hit the Windows key) to open the Start Menu.
In the Run dialog box, type “ncpa.
In the Network Connections window, find the ExpressVPN TAP adapter.
Right-click the TAP adapter, and select Enable.
Restart ExpressVPN and connect to a server location.
The TAPWindows Adapter is a network driver, used by VPN services to connect to servers. This means that for most VPN clients ExpressVPN, NordVPN, CyberGhost, etc. If you use a browser extension VPN, you wont come across it, but wont have the benefits of a fullfeature VPN client installed on your system directly.
TAP devices are virtual network kernel devices supported entirely in software – and not backed up by hardware network adapters. TAP drivers are used for TAP devices to work and they are designed with low-level kernel support for Ethernet tunneling.
The Tap Windows Adapter is a special network driver that enables VPN providers to facilitate a VPN connection to their servers. So, its an essential component to have on your device when you want to use a VPN client. That said, you wont come across the Tap Windows Adapter if you connect to a VPN browser extension.
