Systems Management

BakkerA,

The proxy settings are stored in the HKCU section of the registry, so you would need a package, possibly using Active Setup to populate the settings for each user that logs in.

To work out exactly which keys you require you could set you proxy settings to values that will be unique in the registry and then perform a search.
From memory the below keys are used.

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings

Proxy Server - server name & port seperated by a colon
Proxy Override - proxy exceptions seperated by a semi-colon

Obviously there are other methods of deploying these settings, via logon script for example, so that settings are added at each logon using regedit /s <name of settings file>.reg

Just re-read your original post... to deploy to only one group you could have something in the login script that checks for membership of a particular group, or depending on your deployment tools, SMS, Marimba etc. you could only deploy to your domain/AD group that contain the correct users.

Hope that points you in the correct direction.

Thanks,

Dunnpy

Per User proxy settings are an available GPO setting in active directory. If you are using active directory, this is the most efficeint way to set proxy settings.

In other way to suggested methods I would recomend to do this with Desktop Authority. (www.scriptlogic.com) We use this tool especially for remote management and logon scripts customizing. But I'm sure it can apply proxy settings with Internet object. So, I can hope this tool can help you.

I personally had to deal with the proxy issue at my company. In our case, it was switching the users to a different proxy server.

The HKCU setting mentioned by dunnpy does contain proxy server name, but IE does NOT pull it from there. It actually pulls it from the binary values in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections
And unless you force IE to refresh those binary values, IE is oblivious to the fact that the value in "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Proxy Server" has changed

There are actually RFCs available on the web that describe how MSIE determines the proxy server name to use. You may want to familiarize youselves with those, as they mention a few tricks to make proxy autodiscovery a bit faster, but it's not the point, I guess...

The best solution in a controlled environment IMHO is GPO. However, you sacrifice some flexibility on the users' part, as they are unable to change proxy server once they are affected by the policy. Consider laptop users, or yourself in case you need to troubleshoot internet access...