How to Use a Proxy Auto-Config File with SiteKiosk Windows

This time, we will have a look at the different ways to use a proxy auto-config (PAC) file with SiteKiosk.

There are two different methods, depending on the SiteKiosk browser engine you plan to use. No matter which engine you are using, you need to disable the Use proxy server setting of SiteKiosk, otherwise SiteKiosk will use the proxy settings defined in its configuration file instead of those from the PAC file.

When you are using the Internet Explorer engine, SiteKiosk uses the Microsoft IE settings, including a PAC file assigned there. Note that the IE settings are user dependent, so make sure to make these settings within the Internet Explorer of the user you want to run SiteKiosk with.

When you are using the Chrome Browser engine, you need to add your PAC file manually to the configuration of SiteKiosk. Open your SiteKiosk configuration with an editor like notepad. Search for this line:

"showTaskBar": true,

Add these lines right before the showTaskBar line:

"browserEngine": {
       "commandLineArguments": {
           "set": ["proxy-pac-url=urlzuihrerpacdatei"],
           "remove": []
       }
   },

It should look like this:

…
"system": {
    "password": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "browserEngine": {
       "commandLineArguments": {
           "set": ["proxy-pac-url=UrlToYourPacFile"],
           "remove": []
       }
	},
    "showTaskBar": true,
    "userAgent": {
…

Of course you need to change UrlToYourPacFile to the actual path to your PAC file, e.g. something like file://C:/mylocalpacfile/proxy.pac or http://192.168.99.1:8088/proxy.pac. The configuration part would then look like this:

…
"system": {
    "password": {
      "enabled": false
    },
    "browserEngine": {
       "commandLineArguments": {
           "set": ["proxy-pac-url=file://C:/mylocalpacfile/proxy.pac"],
           "remove": []
       }
    },
    "showTaskBar": true,
    "userAgent": {
…

Please note that the content filter of SiteKiosk does not support using PAC files. Please use the proxy configuration settings of SiteKiosk instead.