Software firewall is a good option.
Is this a (a) site to site VPN or a (b)software client to site VPN?
(a) you can specify with a site to site VPN which PC's can use the tunnel with IP addressing restrictions or ACLs (access control lists)
(b) with a software VPN, usually split tunneling is disabled by default. If this is the case access to the local network is blocked, much like a firewall would do, while the VPN is connected. Split tunneling is managed in different ways with different VPN's. What are you using? If the Windows VPN client go to:
control panel | network connections | right click on the VPN/Virtual adapter and choose properties | Networking | TCP/IP -properties | Advanced | General | make sure you check the box "Use default gateway on remote network"