Windows 8.1 and Cisco VPN – Error 56

After upgrading my OS to Windows 8.1, I ran into the following error dialog when trying to launch my Cisco VPN client:

 

 

I went to my Services and tried to start the, “Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service” from the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) but I received the following error:

 

Next, I went to Windows Event Viewer and found the following error under the System category:

 

Now that I had a better description as to why the service wasn’t working properly, I decided to perform a quick search and see what I could find.  The following two links were exactly what I needed:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2041426

http://adminramble.com/cisco-vpn-client-error-56-service-starts-and-then-stops/

I went back to the Services using MMC and found the “Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)” service and stopped the service and also changed the Startup type to Manual as shown below:

Once I made that change, I simply went back to the “Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service” and tried to start it again.

That is all it took to get my Cisco VPN client working again.  I am not really sure why this is happening but hope this helps anyone else who runs into the problem as well.