No. A proxy passes your web traffic through another server; a VPN sends all traffic of your device through an encrypted tunnel, the more secure connection according to Microsoft.
What solves it instead
- Your employer or school tells you to use a proxy: enter the settings they give you. The Microsoft page under Sources shows where in Windows. You do not need a VPN for that.
- You do not want your internet provider or the network you are on to see which sites you visit: that is the job of a VPN, not something a proxy promises.
- You find a free proxy on a website: whoever runs it sits between you and the sites you visit. We have not tested any and recommend none.
The facts
| About | Word for word from the source | Source, checked on |
|---|---|---|
| What a proxy server does | When you’re connected to the internet and using a proxy server while browsing the web, that traffic goes through the proxy server instead of coming directly from your Windows PC. | support.microsoft.com, |
| Who usually asks for one | In some cases, your company or organization might require a proxy server. | support.microsoft.com, |
| A proxy compared with a VPN | In general, a VPN and proxy server connection might appear to have some similarities, but a VPN provides a more secure connection compared to a proxy server. | support.microsoft.com, |
| Using both | If you’re using a VPN connection and it uses a proxy server, you’ll need to set it up separately for that VPN connection. | support.microsoft.com, |
What a VPN does change
A VPN sends all traffic of your device through an encrypted tunnel, so the network you are on sees only the connection to the VPN server. The VPN provider can then see what your network saw before. Like a proxy, a VPN shows the sites you visit the address of its server instead of yours. Check when a VPN is worth paying for
Without a VPN
- You
- Your networkinternet provider, or the Wi-Fi of work, school or a café
Sees: which sites you visit and when. With HTTPS, not what you do there.
- The website
Sees: your IP address, and with it roughly where you are and who your internet provider is.
With a VPN
- You
- Your networkinternet provider, or the Wi-Fi of work, school or a caféEncrypted tunnel
Sees: only that you are connected to a VPN server, and how much data you send.
- VPN serverrun by the VPN provider
Sees: which sites you visit, as your internet provider did before.
- The website
Sees: the IP address of the VPN server. It still recognises you by your login and cookies.
What we did not check
3
- Individual proxy services, free or paid: we have not tested any.
- Proxy settings on systems other than Windows: the facts above come from Microsoft's help page.
- The proxy extras that some VPN providers include, such as browser extensions: the provider pages list them, we have not tested them.
Sources
1
Next step
- Your employer or school tells you to use a proxy: enter the settings they give you. The Microsoft page under Sources shows where in Windows. You do not need a VPN for that.
- What is my IP address?