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I'm on a company network that requires a proxy to access the outside world. I just got a new Windows 7 machine and for some reason my settings never stick. To start with I'd enter the proxy settings and they would just be ignored (most of the time, ever so often they would save and still be there when I went back to check) and a link to an automatic config script would be there.

Now, the proxy appears to be saved and working most of the time, but the list of internal address that should ignore the proxy wont' save.

Originally i thought it was an issue that only occurred after I had dialed in from home using the VPN, but i just powered off last night after using it on the network and powered on today, same issue.

I asked the network guy and he just gave me the proxy details again to type in. These were never the issue, it was making them stick that is causing the problem.

Does anyone know how to resolve the issue, or could I create my own config scirpt to point at which holds the proxy details and local exceptions in it? Then it can set it up every time for me.

Thanks!

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Which program are you using to set/view the proxy settings? Is this in Internet Explorer's Internet Options?

There are ways for programs to detect changes to the proxy settings, and upon changes, react to them by setting the proxy settings again. It's possible the standard image given to you by your company's IT department contains such a piece of software, which automatically resets the proxy settings after you have set them. Normally this type of issue does not occur on a "clean" machine.

Group policy on a domain controller can also prevent proxy settings from being modified at all, but if this policy were in effect, you'd get an explicit error message rather than the settings not "sticking". So I would ask the domain controller admin if this is something they're doing, then ask the person/people who built the operating system image the same question.

For now, you can try to use a browser such as Firefox, which does not (necessarily) rely on the system proxy settings. This would allow you to key in your proxy settings into Firefox directly, and the proxy settings would be stored in Firefox, for the exclusive use of Firefox. In other words it would neither read to, nor write from, your system-wide proxy settings (the IE proxy settings, that is). As a temporary measure, this can allow you to access the internet using Firefox. But I guess you have to have internet access to download Firefox. Chicken and the egg...

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  • Thanks, I use IE and Chrome (which i think both use IE's Proxy settings). Interestingly I raised such a concern to the install guy but he said he had never heard of it before. Might have to try a new guy.
    – Adam
    Jul 26, 2012 at 14:27
  • Chrome is weird. Older versions do rely exclusively on system proxy settings, but new versions, supported by certain extensions (such as Mohamed Mansour's Proxy Anywhere extension) can use a Chrome-specific proxy without referring to the system proxy settings. Jul 26, 2012 at 14:49

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