How to disable "Automatically detect settings" in IE8

I have been asked today to help with Internet Explorer 8 settings management. My standard answer “most of the IE settings could be managed via GPO” didn’t work on 100% because there are no settings in GPO to enable/disable “Automatically detect settings”. [Correction] This particular setting could be found in the Internet Explorer Maintenance folder of User Settings GPO but this article is mostly about how to find quick solution using Process Monitor tool. Thanks to Simon to point this out.

When I see such a challenge I always use Mark’s tool Process Monitor which helped me this time as well. I run procmon.exe and in IE8 I went to Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN settings -> and uncheck “Automatically detect settings”. Click “Capture” in Process Monitor app, came back to IE and hit OK on all opened windows. Close IE and run back to Process Monitor and stop event capturing.

Quick review of results gave me target registry key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections]

"DefaultConnectionSettings"=hex:46,00,00,00,07,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,90,b6,c6,d7,21,5d,cc,01,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,06,00,00,00,17,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,fe,\

  80,00,00,00,00,00,00,b4,b8,7a,8d,90,e7,17,bc,0c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,17,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,fe,80,00,00,00,00,00,00,41,e6,7c,8b,91,87,d9,02,0f,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,17,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,fe,80,00,00,00,00,00,00,ed,2c,74,3e,d7,32,18,63,10,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,57,b8,3e,70,00,00,00,80,4c,00,31,00,00,00,00,00,e6,3e,60,00,10,\

  20,4d,49,43,52,4f,53,7e,31,00,00,40,00,08,00,04,00,ef,be,fc,3c,f0,9d,e6,3e,\

  60,00,2a,00,00,00,21,29,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,4d,00,69,00,63,00,72,00,6f,00,73,00,6f,00,66,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,\

  02,00,00,00,0a,45,0e,9e,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,6e,64,6f,77,73,00,3c,00,08,\

  00,04,00,ef,be,fc,3c,f0,9d,75,3e,94,8d,2a,00,00,00,22,29,00,00,00,00,02,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,57,00,69,00,6e,00,64,00,6f,00,77,\

  00,73,00,00,00,16,00,6c,00,b1,00,00,00,00,00,fc,3c,dc,a0,16,20,48,69,73,74,\

  6f,72,79,00,3c,00,08,00,04,00,ef,be,fc,3c,f0,9d,fc,3c,dc,a0,2a,00,00,00,24,\

  29,00,00,02,00,00,00,c0,a8,dc,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,48,00,69,00,\

  73,00,74,00,6f,00,72,00,79,00,00,00,16,00,1a,00,00,00,03,00,ef,be,60,35,39,\

  ff,a7,c2,cf,11,bf,f4,44,45,53,54,00,00,16,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  72,b8,3e,70,00,00,00,80,71,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,c0,a8,5e,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\

  00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Agree, IEAK will help as well but in this case customer didn't use IEAK and wants to change settings on already deployed W7 with IE8 computers via GPO

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Actually IEAK is helping organizations to customize the settings for the browser but you are right and this particular settings you can manage via Internet Explorer Maintenance. Anyway my point was about how to find quick solution and Process Monitor could be in help.

• Anonymous
  August 17, 2011
  or uuse  Windws settings, Internet Explorer Maintenance? Ideally all the stuff in IE Maintenace CSE would be moved into Admin templates/Internet explorer, but some still only live in the IE Maintenance area

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2011
  IEAK has nothing do do with it.  Windws settings, Internet Explorer Maintenance is part of standard GPO processing.