Windows 10 - Set up a OS-level proxy with authentication

To connect with certain server, I need to have always the same IP. For that purpose I created a private proxy, and I added authentication so that hackers wouldn't use it for malicious purposes.

Configuring the proxy on software like Firefox is a breeze. The problem is that web browsers aren't the only software that need to connect with this server. For this, I would like to configure my whole OS to be using the proxy.

I tried looking in Windows 10 network configuration, and I saw a place to put my proxy's IP address, but there is no option to include the username/password to connect.

How could I solve this problem?

Enrique Moreno Tent

Posted 2015-09-29T15:13:37.653

Reputation: 363

Yes; Internet Options, setup a proxy. Any application that uses proxy settings will then respect those settings. An application does not have to respect those options though. – Ramhound – 2015-09-29T15:22:32.107

When you say "Internet Options", I figure you mean "Internet Options" -> "Connections" tab -> "LAN settings" button.

The problem is that there is no place there to specify username or password for the proxy. – Enrique Moreno Tent – 2015-09-29T15:25:31.957

The problem is that Windows doesn’t do the connection, it’s up to individual applications to read those settings and use them to connect to the proxy themselves. That means the software needs to support proxies. It’s the same with authentication of course. For your purposes, it may be more appropriate to set up a VPN. If you really can’t you need a helper program that adds the authentication information to proxy requests. – Daniel B – 2016-07-23T11:34:04.257

Would you know of any helper program that does that? And would setting a VPN guarantee I have always the same IP address? – Enrique Moreno Tent – 2016-07-23T11:45:35.973

No, unfortunately most of these programs (they act as a proxy themselves and forward request to an upstream proxy) are just made to deal with NTLM authentication because it isn't supported in most proxy-capable software. A VPN would work similar to a proxy but tunnel all network traffic, not just HTTP(S). – Daniel B – 2016-07-23T15:13:15.040

Answers

Windows 10 does not support user-name and password for the automatic proxy, and this was done for security reasons.

You will need to setup a two-step proxy :

A local proxy server on your computer without user-name and password
The local proxy should connect to the real external proxy using the user-name and password

A possible solution is installing node.js together with proxy-password-automator, described as :

proxy-password-automator
automatically send user/password to http proxy server so you do not need to input it manually.

In theory, if you have a proxy server at real_proxy_ip:8080, then run the following command to create a local proxy at localhost:8081

node proxy-login-automator.js -local_port 8081 -remote_host real_proxy_ip -remote_port 8080 -usr user -pwd pw

Then you can set Window's proxy ip:port to localhost:8081.

A more heavy-weight solution might be to use Squid. Other web proxies that might be of use are Privoxy, WinGate, Anon, CCProxy.

harrymc

Posted 2015-09-29T15:13:37.653

Reputation: 306 093

I like your answer but: @harrymc "Windows 10 does not support user-name and password for the automatic proxy, and this was done for security reasons." How do you know this? How do you explain that the other answer works if that where the case? Please remove this sentence or give a source. – masterxilo – 2019-07-09T12:41:07.483

@masterxilo: This answer dates from 3 years ago, and at that time Windows credentials didn't seem to work. The accepted answer says they now work when using Generic Credentials (which stands to reason since these are application-specific). Future readers should then pay attention to the other answer and test if it works for them. – harrymc – 2019-07-09T13:30:01.503

You can authenticate to the proxy using Windows credentials.

Search windows credential in control panel

Saud Qadir

Posted 2015-09-29T15:13:37.653

Reputation: 111

Why downvote? this is a correct answer. – desmati – 2018-05-17T18:08:59.453

@desmati how exactly that answer helps? – Yehor Smoliakov – 2019-02-02T12:14:28.347

The question specifically asks how to store a username / password at a system level. If the proxy credentials are specified in the Credential Manger, they will be used for all requests through that proxy. – nicholas – 2019-05-01T14:35:10.023

3I had to create the entry under Generic Credentials, not under Windows Credentials. Creating it under Windows Credentials still prompted me for creds when I tried to use the proxy. – duyn9uyen – 2019-06-12T19:51:59.173

are there additional steps to this? It didn't work for me. – Citizen – 2020-02-03T22:19:38.087