How to Turn Off a Proxy (and Stop It Turning Back On)

1. Open Settings > Network & internet > Proxy (Windows 10: Settings > Network & Internet > Proxy).
2. Under Manual proxy setup, next to Use a proxy server, select Set up (some builds show Edit). In the "Edit proxy server" dialog, turn Use a proxy server off and select Save.
3. Under Automatic proxy setup, next to Use setup script, select Set up, turn Use setup script off and select Save, unless your IT team added the script.
4. Automatically detect settings only uses a proxy that the network announces, and a home network announces none, so it can stay on in the normal case. If the proxy comes back, turn it off too: a network or a script can announce one.

Chrome, Edge and most desktop apps follow these settings. Windows also has a separate machine-wide proxy (WinHTTP) for system services; to clear it, open Terminal or Command Prompt as administrator and run:

netsh winhttp show proxy
netsh winhttp reset proxy

reset proxy sets WinHTTP back to DIRECT, removing any configured proxy server (Microsoft Learn: netsh winhttp). show proxy then says "Direct access (no proxy server)." A VPN connection has its own proxy setting: Settings > Network & internet > VPN, select the connection, Advanced options, then Edit next to "Proxy settings for this VPN connection" and choose None (Microsoft Support: use a proxy server in Windows). More on Windows in the Windows proxy setup guide.

Something on the PC writes the proxy again, at sign-in, at restart or when an app starts. Work through these in order, quickest first, and restart after each step to see whether the proxy returns.

Work or school PC? If the Proxy page says "Some of these settings are managed by your organization", or the switches are greyed out, Group Policy or device management sets the proxy. It comes back by design: ask your IT team instead of changing it again.

To see what is set before and after each step, run:

reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v ProxyEnable
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v ProxyServer
reg query "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings" /v AutoConfigURL

ProxyEnable 0x0 means the manual proxy is off. A ProxyServer such as 127.0.0.1:<port> points to a program on your own PC, usually a VPN, a security app or adware. An AutoConfigURL value means a setup script is still set; "unable to find the specified registry key or value" means none is.

1. Open System Settings > Network, select Wi-Fi (or Ethernet) and click Details.
2. Open Proxies and turn off every option: Auto proxy discovery, Automatic proxy configuration, Web proxy (HTTP), Secure web proxy (HTTPS), SOCKS proxy.
3. Click OK. Repeat for every network service you use.

From Terminal, the same for the Wi-Fi service:

networksetup -setwebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
networksetup -setsecurewebproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
networksetup -setsocksfirewallproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
networksetup -setautoproxystate "Wi-Fi" off
networksetup -setproxyautodiscovery "Wi-Fi" off

scutil --proxy then shows no Enable : 1 lines. If the proxy comes back, look for a configuration profile in System Settings > General > Device Management (called Profiles on older macOS) and for VPN or security apps. See Mac proxy settings.

1. Open Settings > Wi-Fi and tap the (i) next to your network.
2. Scroll to HTTP Proxy, tap Configure Proxy and choose Off.
3. Tap Save. The setting is per network, so repeat it for other Wi-Fi networks that have one.

If the option is greyed out or comes back, a configuration profile (Settings > General > VPN & Device Management) or a VPN app sets it. Details: iPhone proxy setup.

1. Open Settings > Network & internet > Wi-Fi (names vary by maker) and tap the network, or long-press it.
2. Tap the edit (pencil) icon or Advanced options.
3. Set Proxy to None and save.

Apps that run their own proxy or VPN, shown with a key icon in the status bar, are turned off in the app itself. See Android proxy setup and phone proxy settings.

• Chrome and Edge use the system settings above. If Chrome's Settings > System says an extension controls your proxy, turn off that extension: proxy settings controlled by an extension has the steps. More in Chrome proxy settings.
• Firefox has its own setting: Settings > General > Network Settings > Settings, then choose No proxy (or Use system proxy settings, if the system proxy is already off). See Firefox proxy setup.
• Proxy extensions (switchers and provider extensions): set them to "Direct" or "System", or disable them in the browser's extensions page.

Command-line tools read environment variables. Clear them for the current shell:

unset http_proxy https_proxy ftp_proxy all_proxy no_proxy
unset HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY FTP_PROXY ALL_PROXY NO_PROXY

Then delete the lines that set them from ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc, ~/.profile or /etc/environment, or they return in the next shell. On GNOME, turn off the desktop proxy with gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode 'none'. A proxy for apt lives in a file under /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/; remove its Acquire::http::Proxy line. Full details in command line proxy and the Linux proxy setup guide.

You do not have to switch the proxy off everywhere to skip it once:

# curl: skip any proxy for this request
curl --noproxy '*' https://example.com

# skip the proxy for some hosts in every tool that reads NO_PROXY
export NO_PROXY="localhost,127.0.0.1,.internal.example"

In Python requests, a session with trust_env = False ignores the proxy environment variables, and passing no proxies then connects directly. To stop using ProxyField in one tool, remove gate.proxyfield.io:7000 from that tool's proxy field.

Your device connects to websites directly again, and sites see your own IP address and location. Nothing else changes: your files, accounts and saved passwords stay as they are. On a company network that only allows web access through its proxy, pages may stop loading; turn the proxy back on with the values your IT team gave you. Sites you were logged into through the proxy may ask you to sign in again, because the IP changed.

Open the same settings and confirm every option is off, or run the command-line checks in how to find the proxy your device uses. Then open the proxy checker without a proxy: it should show your own IP and location. If a page still fails, the proxy troubleshooting guide covers what else can break.