There are a lot of posts on this but nothing I have come across is helpful. All I need is a GPO that enables "Automatically Detect Settings" under Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings. My ultimate goal is to lock that setting enabled. I have the second piece of that puzzle already solved. The GPO setting: User > Admin Templates > Windows Components > Internet Explorer > Disable Changing Automatic Configuration settings. When I enable that the setting becomes locked down to the user. The problem is the first piece of the puzzle - enabling the option.
First, let me state this clearly, most of our workstations are Windows 7 and the domain controllers are Server 2012. There is no "Internet Explorer Maintenance" section in GPO. After a lot of digging around the only way I can find to specify that setting (other then the GUI) is via the registry key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet settings\Connections\DefaultConnectionSettings. Specifically, you need to modify the 9th hex pair as outlined in this article: http://atyoung.blogspot.no/2012/06/info-regarding-hkeycurrentusersoftwarem.html
Please tell me there's an easy way to do this via GPO that I'm overlooking. I'm not sure what else is contained within the DefaultConnectionSettings key nor do I know (easily) how consistent it is between different versions of Windows and Internet Explorer. As such, the idea of using GPO to overwrite the key seams like a bad one to me.