With the release of Edge 86, Microsoft introduced DNS over HTTPS support (DoH) in the stable channel. It makes the browser resolve DNS queries over the encrypted HTTPS protocol. It has several advantages: DNS over HTTPS improves privacy, prevents man-in-the-middle attacks, and improves performance. Also, using DoH allows bypass censorship and connection filtering by DNS.
Unfortunately, after installing Edge 86, users encountered some performance issues and bugs with the predefined list of DNS over HTTPS configuration. This forced Microsoft to disable it and turn off the auto-update feature leaving only the manual setup available. Now, the company is bringing back previously turned-off DNS over HTTPS configuration list.
At the time of writing this article, you can choose one of the several prebuilt DNS providers: CleanBrowsing, Cloudflare, Quad9, NExtDNS, Google, and OpenDNS. The list is available in the Canary, Dev, and Beta channels. The only omission is the Edge Stable. Most likely, Microsoft wants to make sure everything works smoothly without issues before restoring the list for everyone.
Turn on DNS over HTTPS in Microsoft Edge
- Open the Edge menu (Alt+F).
- Select Settings from the menu.
- Navigate to Settings > Privacy, search, and Services > Security.
- Select Choose a service provider and click on one of the pre-configured DoH services. You can also specify a custom provider in case the default list does not fit your needs.
Do note that enabling DoH can break access to some websites, so be sure to revert the change and switch to Use the current service provider if things go sideways.
In addition to bringing DNS over HTTPS to Edge, Microsoft is integrating this feature in Windows 10 to enable encrypted DNS resolving on a global scale. This change will allow all your apps to run using DoH to further improve privacy. Currently, DNS over HTTPS is available in Windows 10 preview builds from Dev Channel.
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