Reset a Broken System Proxy and WinHTTP Settings

**WinHTTP** is machine-wide and used by services, updates and installers. **WinINET** is per user and used by the browser stack. They are set in different places and fail independently.

netsh winhttp show proxy
Get-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' | Select-Object ProxyEnable,ProxyServer,AutoConfigURL

**reset proxy** returns WinHTTP to direct access. Windows Update, the Store and most installers read this setting, so it is the one that fixes background failures.

netsh winhttp reset proxy
netsh winhttp show proxy

Set **ProxyEnable** to 0 and remove the stale server and the auto-config URL. Removing only the switch is what makes the problem come back.

Remove-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -Name AutoConfigURL -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -Name ProxyEnable -Value 0 -Type DWord
Set-ItemProperty 'HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -Name ProxyServer -Value '' -Type String

A domain or a local policy can set the proxy again within minutes. If your change reverts, read the policy value and gpresult before you fight the symptom.

Get-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings' -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object ProxyEnable,ProxyServer,ProxySettingsPerUser
gpresult /r /scope:computer | Select-String Proxy

Many command-line tools ignore both stores and read **HTTP_PROXY** from the environment. A reset that leaves these in place fixes nothing for those apps.

Get-ChildItem Env: | Where-Object Name -match 'PROXY|proxy' | Select-Object Name,Value
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('HTTP_PROXY',$null,'User')
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable('HTTPS_PROXY',$null,'User')

**curl.exe** ships with Windows and reports the connection it actually made. A working curl plus a failing Store points at a cache, not at the proxy.

curl.exe -sS -o NUL -w "%{http_code} %{remote_ip}" https://www.microsoft.com
Resolve-DnsName www.microsoft.com | Select-Object -First 3 Name,IPAddress
Invoke-WebRequest https://www.microsoft.com -UseBasicParsing -Method Head | Select-Object StatusCode