How to set up a proxy in Windows

Setup guide · Last revised Oct 20, 2026

Set it up

1. Open Settings and select Network & internet, then Proxy.
2. Under Manual proxy setup, next to Use a proxy server, select Set up.
3. Turn on Use a proxy server.
4. In Proxy IP address and Port, enter the gateway address and port from your provider’s dashboard (for example proxy.example.com and 8000).
5. In the exception list, enter sites that should not go through the proxy, separated by semicolons; Microsoft’s example is *.contoso.com, where “the * is a wildcard”.
6. Leave Don’t use the proxy server for local (intranet) addresses selected, as Microsoft recommends unless your organization needs it cleared.
7. Select Save.

The login

The Windows setting has no field for a username and password. When the proxy asks for one, Chrome shows a sign-in box the first time you open a page: enter the proxy username and password from your provider’s dashboard, not your account’s email. If your provider offers IP allowlisting, adding your connection’s public address there avoids the prompt altogether (username and password vs IP whitelist).

Check that it works

Open https://api.ipify.org in Edge or Chrome. It should show the proxy’s address, not your own. To see your own, turn Use a proxy server off and reload. For the location, open https://ipinfo.io/country.

What this setting does not cover

• Firefox has a proxy setting of its own, which can differ from the system’s (Firefox).
• Apps that ignore the system proxy connect directly; command-line tools such as curl read their own settings instead. For curl and scripts, set the proxy in the tool: curl, Python Requests.
• SOCKS5. The manual setting is for an HTTP proxy. For SOCKS5 in a browser or an app, set it in that app.
• A VPN connection has its own proxy setting: Microsoft says to set it “separately for that VPN connection”, under Network & internet, VPN, the connection’s Advanced options.

What it costs to leave it on

With the system proxy on, everything that follows it goes through the proxy: Windows Update, app updates, cloud backups and streaming. On a plan billed by the GB, that is traffic you pay for. Turn the setting off when you are not using the proxy, or add the big downloaders to the exception list. What a GB costs today: residential proxy prices.

Next

How to test a proxy checks location and speed. If pages fail to load, find out who sent the error: proxy errors.