---
title: Smart Card Credential Provider
slug: ps/help/en_us/ics/com/vtcg/smart-card-credential-provider
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-02T15:43:23.545Z
---

Windows Vista also supports smart card credential provider-passing user credentials upon a smart card being inserted. If there is smart card present, a VPN tunneling Smart Card Credential Provider DLL tile shows on the PLAP layer. Click the tile and enter your smart card PIN to log in.

To install the smart card **VPN tunneling credential provider:**

1. Make sure your client user is part of a **Windows** domain.
2. In the Admin console, select **User Roles > **Role** > VPN Tunneling **and select the **Require client to start when logging into Windows** option.
3. When installing VPN tunneling on the client system (running Windows Vista), you are prompted by the **GINA **window to configure the **GINA authentication**. Click **OK**.

Use the smart card to log in to the device from a browser so the config.ini file will contain the smart card login URL which can then be used by the smart card DLL.

4. Once the **VPN tunnel** is established on the client system, open the **VPN tunneling window**. Go to the **Advanced View **and select the **Information** tab. In the **Results** section, ensure that the GINA plug-in is configured. You should see something similar to **GINA Plug-In: Configured**.

To use the smart card credential provider:

1. Log out of Windows and press **Ctrl+Alt+Delete**.

You should see the **Network logon** icon located in the lower right corner of your screen. If you see only the Windows user standard tiles, click the **Switch user** option under the standard Windows credential tiles to see the Network logon icon.

2. Click the **Network logon** icon and then click the **smart card** icon.
3. Enter your **PIN number** or **password** and click the **right arrow button**.

VPN tunneling uses the PIN to retrieve the stored certificate and to log in to Connect Secure. After a successful login, the PIN is passed to Winlogon to log in to Vista.

:::hint{type="info"}
If your Ivanti Connect Secure credential is not the same as your **Windows **domain credential, an alert box appears. Click **OK**. If a connection icon appears in the lower right corner of your screen, switch to the standard credential login tiles and log in to **Vista**. Otherwise, enter your **Windows** credential in the login box.
:::

VPN tunneling retrieves the user principal name (**UPN**) from the smart card and compares them with the login user and domain names. If they do not match, the tunnel is disabled. The UPN typically has the format `user@domain`.