This article describes the steps you can take to enable or disable the use of secure DNS to specify how to look up the network address for websites.
The Microsoft Edge browser is the default browser in Windows 11. Users are allowed to switch to their preferred or favorite browser anytime. Edge is based on Chromium, similar to Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers today.
By default, Microsoft Edge uses your current DNS service provider which is automatically assigned to your computer. If you want to use trusted secure DNS providers, Edge will let you choose custom DNS providers like NextDNS, OpenDNS, Google Public DNS, Cloudflare, and a few others.
It is great to use secure DNS, however, some DNS providers may cause some sites to not be reachable.
Choose secure DNS in the Microsoft Edge browser
As described above, out of the box, the Microsoft Edge browser will automatically use the default DNS assigned to your computer from your service provider.
If you wish to use custom secure DNS providers, Edge will let you choose from a list of providers.
Here’s how to do that.
First, open the Microsoft Edge browser.
Then click on Setting and more (Alt+F) 3 horizontal dots button on the top right corner and select Settings.
Next, click on Privacy, search, and services on the left menu.
On the Settings -> Privacy, search, and services settings pane, under the Security section toggle the button on the tile that says “Use secure DNS to specify how to lookup the network address for websites” to On or Off.
When you enable it, you will also need to choose which DNS provider to use:
- Use current service provider
- Choose a service provider:
- NextDNS
- OpenDNS
- Google (Public DNS)
- Cloudflare
- CleanBrowsing (Family Filter)
If you enabled and select the correct service provider, Edge will attempt to use secure DNS, and fall back to no security if the service provider doesn’t support it.
If you enabled and select a service provider from the list, your browser DNS traffic will be routed to the service provider infrastructure.
Alternatively, you can enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) easily in Windows 11.
That should do it!
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to enable or disable the use of secure DNS in the Microsoft Edge browser. If you find any error above or have something to add, please use the comment form below.
