Since the last few years, Google and Microsoft are putting in huge efforts to improve user privacy, especially after Apple made privacy a selling point. Google brought the option to change system-wide DNS settings with Android 9, and Microsoft added the option on Windows 10 in 2020. Even Mozilla now enables DNS over HTTPS by default in its web browser. So if you want to protect your privacy on the web, go ahead and turn on DNS over HTTPS on Windows 11. It’s a system-wide toggle, so all communication between your PC and the DNS server will be encrypted. So without any delay, let’s check out what it is and the steps to enable it.
In this article, we have mentioned the steps to turn on DNS over HTTPS (DoH), along with an explainer on what DoH is and why you should enable it on your Windows 11 computer.
- What is DNS over HTTPS and Why You Should Enable It on Windows 11?How to Turn On DNS over HTTPS on Windows 11 [Easiest Method
What is DNS over HTTPS and Why You Should Enable It on Windows 11?
If you have no prior knowledge of DNS over HTTPS, there is nothing to worry about. Here, we give you a brief explainer about DoH and make a case for why you should enable it.
To make it clear, whatever you do on a website, like browsing the website or performing a transaction, remains encrypted given that it’s an HTTPS website. It means that no one, not even the ISP knows what you did on the website. However, DNS queries are largely unencrypted, and that means your ISP or anyone in the local network can at least know which website you visited.
So now, to bring encryption to DNS queries, the DNS over HTTPS feature has been introduced. Basically, even while fetching the domain name from the DNS server, your queries will be encrypted using the HTTPS protocol.
Open the Settings app and move to the “Network & internet” section from the left sidebar. Then, click on “Wi-Fi” or “Ethernet” depending on your internet connection on the right pane.
Next, move to “Hardware properties“.
Here, click on “Edit” next to “DNS server assignment”.
From the drop-down menu at the top, choose “Manual” and turn on “IPv4”.
Under the Preferred and Alternative DNS fields, enter your choice of DNS. You can go through our list of best DNS servers from the linked article. We are using Google’s DNS server, which is 8.8.8.8 and alternate DNS 8.8.4.4. There are also popular alternatives like Cloudflare and OpenDNS to choose from.
Finally, to turn on DNS over HTTPS on Windows 11, click on the drop-down menu under “Preferred DNS encryption” and choose the “Encrypted only (DNS over HTTPS)” option. Follow the same steps for “Alternative DNS encryption”. You don’t need to do anything for IPv6.
After that, click on “Save” to save the changes, and you are done.
You have successfully enabled DNS over HTTPS on your Windows 11 PC. All communication between your computer and the DNS server will now be encrypted, and no one will be to access your DNS queries.
