From: John Beckett 

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 22:19:19 -0700, "Rich"  wrote:
> If I had to guess I would speculate that there is a discrepancy between the
> per-machine and per-user proxy settings.

Reminder:
XP SP2 with proxy server set for current user. Windows Update fails to
download updates (netstat show direct connection attempts).

I carefully exported the ProxyEnable and ProxyServer registry settings from
HKCU, and imported them to the same place under HKLM (I have some old notes
telling me that this worked at one time, although I suppose I should be
using Group Policy - Internet Explorer Maintenance). Windows Update no
change.
Reboot. WU no change.

Google Groups showed acres of agony with similar stories and all sorts of
weird and wonderful remedies.

It appears something called proxycfg is what I need, but I came across a
message with several "it worked" follow-ups so I thought I would
try it. I did the following, and WU worked:

net stop wuauserv
Delete contents of C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution folder. net start wuauserv

I still had the registry settings under HKLM, so I don't know if they were relevant.

After Windows Update worked and rebooted, I thought I would see what
proxycfg is about. Sure enough, it tells me that WinHttpSettings are:
   Direct access (no proxy server).

I should use the -p option (you need Google for the syntax) to fix this,
but I will leave it alone for now.

As several newsgroups posters whined, it sure would be easier if there was
some documentation (ONE manual on this topic would be nice!).

John

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