Your computer’s DNS settings are a gateway between the Internet and your local network. Your router uses these settings to figure out where it should send each request for an IP address, but if you’re having trouble getting around that filter—whether because of some sort of problem with your connection or just general laziness—you’ll need to flush the DNS cache on Windows 10.
The “ip release, renew and flush dns windows 10” is a command that can be used to flush DNS in Windows 10. This will allow you to clear your DNS cache, which can fix many problems.
Have you ever come upon a website that will not load? The Domain Name System (DNS) resolver cache on your Windows 10 PC converts domain names into IP addresses. When a website refuses to load, you may need to flush, or clean, your DNS cache in Windows 10.
In this article, you’ll learn how to use the built-in ipconfig command and PowerShell’s Remove-DnsClientCache cmdlet to clear a DNS cache in Windows 10 as a debugging tool.
Prerequisites
To follow along with the examples in this tutorial, keep the following in mind.
- You may use Windows PowerShell 5.1 or Windows PowerShell 7.x. PowerShell 7.1 will be used in all cases.
A Walkthrough for Upgrading to PowerShell 7
- Any current version of Windows will work, even Windows 10. Windows 10 is used in this lesson.
What is a DNS Cache, exactly?
IP addresses are used in computer networking to communicate with distant systems. You’ve probably heard of Google.com, but what about 172.217.169.68? A DNS server exists to convert the two values and facilitate navigation.
Instead of requesting an IP address for each page, Windows 10 will create a cache that maps an IP address to a domain name while you surf the web.
Reading the DNS Resolver Cache in Windows 10
You should first learn how to read the DNS cache before altering your system by flushing it. Always inspect what you’re removing before removing it!
PowerShell is one approach to access a local DNS cache. Get-DnsClientCache is a built-in cmdlet in PowerShell that returns all items in the cache.
- To launch a PowerShell console, first open the Run window using the key combination Windows Key+R.
Make sure PowerShell is running as an administrator.
2. To launch a Windows PowerShell session, type powershell and press enter.
Use pwsh at the Run prompt instead if you’re running PowerShell 7.x!
3. As seen below, run Get-DnsClientCache with no options. The DNS records that Windows 10 has cached will then appear.
Using the PowerShell command Get-DnsClientCache to get the contents of the DNS cache.
4. Use the Type argument if you only want to view certain categories of records, for example.
-Type A Get-DnsClientCache
Using the PowerShell command Get-DnsClientCache, only A entries are returned.
Using /flushdns in ipconfig
The ipconfig command was originally used to flush DNS in Windows 10 (and prior). Although the ipconfig command has been there since Windows NT, it was only in Windows 2000 that it got the ability to flush the DNS resolver cache.
Clear the DNS resolver cache in Windows 10 using the ipconfig command:
- To launch the Run window, press Windows Key+R.
2. Open a command prompt window by typing cmd.
3. Run the command ipconfig /flushdns. The flushdns option searches for and removes all entries from the current resolver cache.
Using ipconfig, flush the DNS cache in Windows 10.
Related: ipconfig Commands You Should Know
Using PowerShell to Clear the DNS Cache on Windows 10
Perhaps you’re building an automation process that requires the DNS resolver cache to be purged. Perhaps you just like PowerShell! In any case, you may use the Clear-DnsClientCache cmdlet to do the same action as ipconfig.
To clear the DNS resolve cache on Windows 10, use PowerShell.
- Run Clear-DnsClientCache in PowerShell and press Enter.
You may also use the Verbose option to see what the command will do after it’s finished.
# The Verbose argument generates user-friendly messages when Clear-DnsClientCache is used. -Verbose Clear-DnsClientCache
Clear the DNS cache in Windows 10 using PowerShell’s Clear-DnsClientCache command.
Steps to Follow
To easily repair difficulties loading webpages in Windows 10, you don’t need a deep understanding of the DNS system. You learnt how to flush or clear the DNS Resolver Cache in Windows 10 using ipconfig and the PowerShell command Clear-DnsClientCache in this post.
Take it a step further and see if you can use Clear-DnsClientCache to clear distant system DNS client caches! Use the Invoke-Command cmdlet as a hint.
Related: The Best Way to Run Remote Code with Invoke-Command
The “flush dns cache” is a command-line tool that allows users to flush the DNS cache on their computer. This will clear out any cached information and stop it from being used by your computer.
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