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If I edit Proxy Settings through the Control Panel, the settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable and ...\ProxyServer. These settings are of course not used when running as a service under LOCAL SYSTEM.

So I tried setting ProxyEnable and ProxyServer under HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18\... (as well as HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\... and all the other users on the system), but that does not work.

How do I set the proxy settings for the LOCAL SYSTEM user?

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6 Answers 6

Reset to default
27

It is actually the value in Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\DefaultConnectionSettings that is used.

Since that is not easily modified, you can modify the proxy settings for a user, export the registry key, modify the path in the exported file to HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-18 and reimport it.

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  • This solved my problem, many thanks! I ended up writing a Java class to manipulate the DefaultConnectionSettings hex string, as I needed to set the proxy programmatically.
    – Andrew Swan
    Nov 29, 2010 at 4:30
  • Can this work if authentication is required?
    – Raúl Salinas-Monteagudo
    May 7, 2019 at 7:15
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    I had to use another ID than S-1-5-18 and I retrieved it by issuing: wmic useraccount get name,sid|findstr some-user-name.
    – 030
    Oct 6, 2021 at 8:59
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First, run cmd as administrator to open a command prompt.

Command to copy proxy settings of current user to WinHttp:

netsh winhttp import proxy source =ie

To reset the proxy to default settings:

netsh winhttp reset proxy

To show proxy settings of current user:

netsh winhttp show proxy
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  • 4
    One liner: netsh winhttp import proxy source =ie
    – Vadzim
    May 22, 2017 at 7:28
  • 4
    this doesn't work running as a SYSTEM it will return none
    – AK_
    Mar 27, 2021 at 21:38
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Another way, albeit much messier, is to use psexec to open a command prompt running as LOCAL SYSTEM, then from that open iexplore.exe, modify the settings appropriately.

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  • PsExec.exe -i -s regedit /s "%~dp0Internet Settings.reg"
    – Vadzim
    May 22, 2017 at 7:26
5

The Same thing can be done much easier in this way-

& C:\windows\System32\bitsadmin.exe /Util /SetIEProxy LocalSystem Manual_proxy http://<proxyserver>:<proxy port> "<Any bypasses to be added>"
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Reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v "ProxyEnable" /t REG_DWORD /d "0" /f

Reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v "ProxyServer" /t REG_SZ /d "http://procycorp.bac:80" /f

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    Does that actually work now? 7 years ago when I last tried this, it just changed the values in the registry, but you had to change Connections\DefaultConnectionSettings to actually get Windows to use the procy server.
    – Rasmus Faber
    Oct 31, 2015 at 6:29
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    This sets the current user (CU in HKCU), so not the local system user.
    – Ralph Bolton
    Jan 17, 2019 at 14:45
0

You might want to try using ProxyCFG.EXE, which sets the proxy for any WinHTTP calls.

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