Resolution
Resolution and explanation provided by MS:
Delete keys a, b and c. Set key d to a value of 1.
a. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\DefaultConnectionSettings
b. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections\SavedLegacySettings
c. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\AutoConfigURL
d. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyEnable
This is what was contained in keys a and b. Both keys have http://autproxy.gm.com in them (68,74,74,70,3a,2f,2f,61,75,74,6f,70,72,6f,78,79,2e,67,6d,2e,63,6f,6d):
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Connections]
"DefaultConnectionSettings"=hex:46,00,00,00,2f,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,17,00,00,00,68,74,74,70,3a,2f,2f,61,75,74,6f,70,72,6f,78,79,\
2e,67,6d,2e,63,6f,6d,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
"SavedLegacySettings"=hex:46,00,00,00,0c,01,00,00,05,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,17,00,00,00,68,74,74,70,3a,2f,2f,61,75,74,6f,70,72,6f,78,79,2e,67,\
6d,2e,63,6f,6d,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
MS explanation:
Anything that causes the IE Maintenance iedkcs32.dll to process settings will reset the ProxyEnable and ProxyServer values. This includes "GPUpdate /force" but also includes restarting any service that may use Wininet APIs.
I suspect the winlogon.exe process sets the ProxyEnable and ProxyServer values under HKU\.Default which then reads from the key below, which have the old proxy settings.
If ProxyEnable is zero, the application uses INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_DIRECT. Otherwise, the application uses
INTERNET_OPEN_TYPE_PROXY and uses the ProxyServer and ProxyOverride information.
Examples:
"ProxyEnable"=1
"ProxyServer"=http://ProxyServername:PortNumber
So, even if is set to 0 and you have a defaultconnectionsetting entry, it will use whatever you have on the key. The entries you have come from the user template you use when building the image.