Be there but don't show yourself too much

Whilst setting up a VPN connection is probably a task for experienced users who like (and need) various possible options to configure, everyday usage should be as transparent and unobtrusive as possible. Internet speed should (ideally) not be degraded too much, but I rather think of annoyances such as VPN applications that don't start minimized, need user interaction to connect at all, etc. The ideal solution would be a client that can be configured to the users needs but further on launches and connects automatically upon system startup but doesn't show a welcome screen or any other UI element, just adds it's icon to the info area.
Having a browser extension that can interact with the VPN client would be a nice feature to easily switch VPN locations without having to switch between various programs.