DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) allows DNS resolution to be performed via the HTTPS protocol rather than through the normal plain text DNS lookups.
ISPs tend to block your connection to sites by monitoring the DNS traffic. With DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS), you'll be able to bypass censorship, improve the security of your connection, and increase your network's privacy.
How to enable DoH support in Windows 10
DoH support is included in Windows 10 preview builds, but the feature is not enabled by default. If you want to use DoH when making DNS queries in your apps or browsers, you can enable it manually from Settings or by tweaking Windows Registry.
First and foremost, make sure that you are in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider program and you've upgraded to Build 19628 or higher.
To enable DoH in Windows 10 preview builds, follow these steps:
- On Ethernet (wired) connections, open Settings > Network & Internet > Status.
- Click Properties and Select Edit IP assignment or Edit DNS server assignment.
- On Wi-Fi (wireless) connections, open network page and click adapter's properties link, and then select Edit IP assignment or Edit DNS server assignment.
"Once encryption is enabled, you can confirm it’s working by looking at the applied DNS servers in the network properties and see them labelled as '(Encrypted)' servers," Microsoft noted in a blog post published earlier this year.
List of DoH DNS servers you can use in Windows 10:
Server Owner | Server IP addresses |
Cloudflare | 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1 2606:4700:4700::1111 2606:4700:4700::1001 |
8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 2001:4860:4860::8888 2001:4860:4860::8844 |
|
Quad9 | 9.9.9.9 149.112.112.112 2620:fe::fe 2620:fe::fe:9 |
This feature is expected to arrive later this year or next year.
Enable DoH in Google Chrome
Chrome 83 and later supports DNS-over-HTTPS, but the feature isn't enabled by default for all users.
To enable DoH in Google Chrome, follow these steps:
- Head to Settings.
- Open the Privacy and security section.
- Look for the Use Secure DNS setting
- Enable it and use either your current service provider or alternate DNS providers, such as Cloudflare and Google.
If you don't see the above setting yet, it means that the DoH support has not yet rolled out to your installation of Chrome. You can still enable it using an experimental flag by following these steps:
- Type chrome://flags/#dns-over-https” into Chrome’s address bar.
- Click the “Default” drop-down menu.
- Select “Enabled”.
- Relaunch Chrome.
Enable DoH in Microsoft Edge
After Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge is next to support DoH.
To use the feature, download and install Microsoft Edge Dev build and follow these steps:
- Open Edge Settings.
- Head to the Privacy, search, and services tab.
- Under "Security", locate "Use secure DNS to specify how to lookup the network address for websites" option.
- Enable it and use either your current service provider or alternate DNS providers, such as Cloudflare and Google.
Enable DoH in Firefox
To enable DoH in Firefox, follow these steps:
-
- Open Firefox settings.
- Search for "DoH" in Settings and select change network settings.
- In the 'Connection Settings' window, enable DNS over HTTPs and select your DNS provider.