Setup guide

Change DNS servers on Windows

Windows 11 and Windows 10, through Settings or PowerShell — including how to check that the change took effect and how to put things back.

Before you change anything

Write down your current setting first. Open Settings → Network & internet, select your connection, and note whether DNS assignment is Automatic (DHCP) or Manual. For almost every home setup the answer is Automatic, and returning it to Automatic undoes everything in this guide.
On a work, school or campus network, a custom resolver commonly breaks internal hostnames, intranet sites and VPN resources that depend on split DNS. If anything internal stops resolving, that is the cause — revert first, investigate second.
Captive portals on hotel and airport Wi-Fi often will not appear until you go back to the network’s own DNS.
Changing resolver changes what is filtered. Moving to an unfiltered resolver switches off malware or adult-content blocking you may currently rely on; moving to a filtering one can block sites that used to work.
Your chosen resolver can see every domain your device looks up. Changing DNS moves that visibility from your ISP to the new provider. It does not make your lookups invisible, and it does not hide which sites you visit from anything else on the path.

Windows 11 — Settings

Open Settings → Network & internet.
Select Wi-Fi or Ethernet, then open the properties for your active connection.
Find DNS server assignment and choose Edit.
Change the dropdown from Automatic (DHCP) to Manual.
Turn on IPv4 and enter your chosen preferred and alternate addresses. If your network uses IPv6, turn on IPv6 as well and enter that provider’s IPv6 addresses — leaving IPv6 on automatic while forcing IPv4 means some lookups will still go to your old resolver, and your results will be a mixture of both.
Optionally set DNS over HTTPS to On (automatic template). Windows recognises the well-known providers and will use their encrypted endpoint. This is a different service from the plain address you just typed — see DNS-over-HTTPS explained.
Select Save.

Addresses for each provider are listed in the resolver comparison.

Windows 10 — Control Panel

Open Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center → Change adapter settings.
Right-click your active adapter and choose Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and choose Properties.
Select Use the following DNS server addresses and enter the preferred and alternate addresses.
Repeat for Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) if your network uses IPv6.
Choose OK, then close the adapter properties.

PowerShell

Run PowerShell as administrator. Replace the adapter name and addresses as needed:

Get-NetAdapter | Select-Object Name, Status
Get-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Wi-Fi"   # record this before changing anything

Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Wi-Fi" -ServerAddresses ("1.1.1.1","1.0.0.1")

The second command prints your current servers. Save that output somewhere before you continue — it is the only record of what you had.

Clear the cache and check it worked

ipconfig /flushdns
Get-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Wi-Fi"
Resolve-DnsName dnsbenchmarkpro.com

The second command should list the addresses you set. If it still shows the old ones, you edited a different adapter — a common mistake on machines with both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, or with a VPN adapter installed.
The third command should return an address. If it fails, revert now using the section below and re-check what you typed.
Load a few sites you use daily, including any work or internal ones, before deciding the change was successful.

If something breaks, put it back

Settings: Settings → Network & internet → your connection → DNS server assignment → Edit → set to Automatic (DHCP) → Save.
PowerShell: Set-DnsClientServerAddress -InterfaceAlias "Wi-Fi" -ResetServerAddresses — this returns the adapter to DHCP-assigned DNS.
Then clear the cache: ipconfig /flushdns.
If you also enabled DNS over HTTPS, set it back to Off in the same panel.
Reconnect to your network and confirm the sites that failed now load.

Last reviewed 2026-08-15. Provider configuration comes from RESOLVER-REGISTRY.json, which records the official source and verification date for every entry.