Enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge

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How to Enable DNS over HTTPS (DoH) in Microsoft Edge Chromium

Microsoft Edge is now a Chromium-based browser with a number of exclusive features like Read Aloud and services tied to Microsoft instead of Google. From today's post, we will learn how to enable the DNS over HTTPS (Doh) feature in Microsoft Edge Chromium.

For those who is not familiar with DoH, DNS-over-HTTPS is a relatively young web protocol, implement about two years ago. It is intended to increase user privacy and security by preventing eavesdropping and manipulation of DNS data by man-in-the-middle attacks by using the HTTPS protocol to encrypt the data between the DoH client and the DoH-based DNS resolver.

Edge inherited many of the Chrome options, including the DoH option. In older builds of Edge Chromium there is no GUI to enable or disable DoH, but you can enable it with a flag. When enabled, it utilizes Google DNS servers for the secure resolver protocol. Starting in Edge 86.0.612.0, the DoH feature can be configured in settings. Let's review both methods.

To Enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge,

  1. Open Microsoft Edge.
  2. Click on the Settings button (Alt + F) and select Settings from the menu.
  3. On the left, click on Privacy and services.
  4. Scroll down the right side to the Security section.
  5. Turn on the Use secure DNS to specify how to lookup the network address for websites option.
  6. Select Use current service provider to use Google DNS servers for the secure resolver protocol.
  7. Select the option Choose a service provider to be able to specify the service provider manually.
  8. Select one of the suggestions, or enter a custom IP address of the secure DNS provider service.

You are done!

Enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge using the flag (legacy method)

  1. Open Microsoft Edge.
  2. Type the following in the address bar: edge://flags/#dns-over-https.
  3. Select Enabled from the drop-down menu next to the Secure DNS lookups line.
  4. Click on the restart button to relaunch the browser.
  5. You are done!

In the future, Microsoft Edge may receive a GUI to configure this option.

Similarly, users of other browsers can also enable this functionality.

Note: Firefox has Cloudflare and NextDNS services preinstalled out of the box. By this time, DNS over HTTPS (DoH) is enabled by default in Firefox for US-based users only, but that will change in the future.

The stable version of Microsoft Edge Chromium is available to the public for a while. The browser has already received a few updates, with support for ARM64 devices in Edge Stable 80. Also, Microsoft Edge is still supporting a number of aging Windows versions, including Windows 7, which has recently reached its end of support. Check out Windows Versions Supported by Microsoft Edge Chromium. Finally, interested users can download MSI installers for deployment and customization.

For pre-release versions, Microsoft is currently using three channels to deliver updates to Edge Insiders. The Canary channel receives updates daily (except Saturday and Sunday), the Dev channel is getting updates weekly, and the Beta channel is updated every 6 weeks. Microsoft is going to support Edge Chromium on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, alongside macOS, Linux (coming in the future) and mobile apps on iOS and Android.

Also check:

Microsoft Edge Roadmap: History Sync This Summer, Linux Support

Actual Edge versions

The actual versions of Edge Chromium at the moment of this writing are as follows:

You will find many Edge tricks and features covered in the following post:

Hands-on with the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge

Also, see the following updates.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

5 thoughts on “Enable DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge”

  1. Thanks Sergey.

    I was able to enable DoH in Brave (brave://flags/#dns-over-https), but it’s not listed as an option for my version of Edge – version 80.0.361.62 (Official build) (64-bit)
    Perhaps it’s been updated to always use DoH now, and thus they removed that flag?
    Also, I see that flag is also now gone in Opera.
    No matter to me, just a kindly FYI on my end.

    Other than that, I’m liking the new Edge. It’s very much like Opera.

    Also, I use Winaero Tweaker, but I didn’t know you had a tech blog. I like your topics and writing style, so I’ll be back.

    Lastly, I have a simple tweak for how to completely remove the built in search features in Edge if you’re interested:

    1) Go to edge://settings/searchEngines
    2) Make a new search engine by clicking “add” and enter “NULL” in all the 3 boxes there.
    3) Go to edge://settings/search and under “choose Search engine used in the address bar” and select NULL.

    Now Edge will no longer have a search function in the address bar or the select-text>right-click menu.

    I use the search extension Context Menu Search, so I have no use for those built-in search functions.

    Reply

  3. Well the flag is there in Edge 80.0.361.62, but doesn’t work when enabled according to “Browsing Experience Security Check” at https://www.cloudflare.com/ssl/encrypted-sni/

    Reply

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