How can I get the current Windows' browser proxy setting, as well as set them to a value?
I know I can do this by looking in the registry at Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ProxyServer, but I'm looking, if it is possible, to do this without messing directly with the registry.
urllib module automatically retrieves settings from registry when no proxies are specified as a parameter or in the environment variables
In a Windows environment, if no proxy environment variables are set, proxy settings are obtained from the registry’s Internet Settings section.
See the documentation of urllib module referenced in the earlier post.
To set the proxy I assume you'll need to use the pywin32 module and modify the registry directly.
If the code you are using uses urlopen under the hood you an set the http_proxy environment variable to have it picked up.
See the documentation here for more info.
You can use WinHttpGetIEProxyConfigForCurrentUser as stated in this SO question
There's another SO question with examples of PyWin32, the Python for Windows extensions.
