How to keep users from changing proxy settings (group policy) 1

[josephwalter]

I have set the desired proxy settings and default home page using group policy (under User config | Windows settings | Internet Explorere Maintenance | URLs and Connection (respectively). The changes have taken effect.

The Address box to set my homepage is grayed out (disable) and I cannot change it. My proxy settings, on the other hand, are not disabled. I could turn off the proxy settings (thereby, bypassing the proxy server).

How do I get the proxy settings grayed out like the address box is?

 

[tfg13]

Have you attempted to change the User Config->Windows Settings->Internet Explorer Maintenance->Connection->Connection Settings? Just wondering if that will gray out your settings. Never mind, I just tried it.


You could always "Disable the Connections page" under User Config->Administrative Templates->Internet Explorer->Internet Control Panel.....This won't allow users to be able to access the "connection" tab of IE, which effectively eliminates a user's capability to change those settings....

 

[josephwalter]

Disabling the entire connections page gets the job done, but is a little overkill. Your reply led me to discover another setting that did just what I wanted, though:

User Config->Administrative Templates->Internet Explorer
Policy for "Disable changing proxy settings".

And wouldn't you know, there's another policy in the same list... "Disable changing home page settings"... which must be what causes the home page to be grayed out (not the policy in User config | Windows settings | Internet Explorere Maintenance | URLs, as I originally though).

Thank you for the reply.

 

[minxca]

Don't forget to set the permission on registry, smart users can modify the registry for proxy settings