I am seeing this in both Vista and XP, on a ton of peoples' computers. In IE, when you go to TOOLS/INTERNET OPTIONS, Connections Tab, LAN SETTINGS: The auto proxy configuration (top half of the box) is grayed out - no changes can be made. Now, I know you can go into the registry and change the DWORDS from 1 to 0,

HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Control Panel
DWORD: Proxy (Change from 1 --> 0)
DWORD: Connection Settings (Change from 1 --> 0)

but I am trying to figure out how/why this is happening. None of the attributes of the latest malware/virus threats I've seen are indicated as doing this; I am wondering if there is some "tweak program" that people are putting on their computers that is doing this? Anyone here have an experience with this issue?