Windows 7 / Getting Started

Configuring Windows Update to Use a Proxy Server

Windows Update can use an HTTP proxy server. However, configuring Windows Internet Explorer is not sufficient to configure Windows Update because Windows Update uses Windows HTTP Services (WinHTTP) to scan for updates and BITS to download updates.

You can configure Windows Update to use a proxy server in two ways:

  • Web Proxy Auto Detect (WPAD) settings are configured. The WPAD feature lets services locate an available proxy server by querying a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) option or by locating a particular Domain Name System (DNS) record.
  • Use the Netsh command-line tool, which replaces the Proxycfg.exe tool.

To use the Netsh command-line tool, first switch to the Netsh Winhttp context. Then, use the show proxy command to view settings or the set proxy command to define your proxy server configuration settings. For example, you can run the following command to view current proxy server settings.

Netsh winhttp show proxy

The following commands demonstrate how to configure proxy server settings.

Netsh winhttp set proxy myproxy
Netsh winhttp set proxy myproxy:80 "<local>;bar"
Netsh winhttp set proxy proxy-server="http=myproxy;https=sproxy:88" bypass-list="*.
contoso.com"

Alternatively, if you have configured Internet Explorer proxy server settings correctly, you can import settings from Internet Explorer into WinHTTP by using the following command.

Netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie

To reset your proxy server settings, run the following command.

Netsh winhttp reset proxy
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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Software Updates
  2. Methods for Deploying Updates
  3. Windows Update Client
  4. Windows Server Update Services
  5. System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2
  6. Manually Installing, Scripting, and Removing Updates
  7. Overview of Windows 7 Update Files
  8. How to Script Update Installations
  9. How to Remove Updates
  10. Deploying Updates to New Computers
  11. Other Reasons to Use a Private Network for New Computers
  12. Managing BITS
  13. BITS Behavior
  14. BITS Group Policy Settings
  15. Configuring the Maximum Bandwidth Served For Peer Client Requests Policy
  16. Managing BITS with Windows PowerShell
  17. Windows Update Group Policy Settings
  18. Configuring Windows Update to Use a Proxy Server
  19. Tools for Auditing Software Updates
  20. The MBSA Console
  21. MBSACLI
  22. Scheduling MBSA
  23. Troubleshooting the Windows Update Client
  24. The Process of Updating Network Software
  25. Assembling the Update Team
  26. Inventorying Software
  27. Creating an Update Process
  28. Discovering Updates
  29. Evaluating Updates
  30. Speeding the Update Process
  31. Retrieving Updates
  32. Testing Updates
  33. Installing Updates
  34. Removing Updates
  35. Auditing Updates
  36. How Microsoft Distributes Updates
  37. Security Updates
  38. Update Rollups
  39. Service Packs
  40. Microsoft Product Life Cycles