DNS is short for Domain Name System. The Domain Name System delegates the assigning of domain names and the mapping of those names to the authoritative name servers for each domain. While this is a quite complex system on the back-end for users it’s quite easy to change the DNS settings on their computers. If you wish to learn more about DNS then we would suggest you read the following articles about DNS and what’s it all about.
This article applies to: Windows 8, and Windows 10. However, screenshots from Windows 10 are used throughout this article.
However, we will not go deep into DNS and what’s it all about, if you want to learn more then like I said before read the articles linked above. In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the DNS server address settings in Windows 10 and Windows 8.
You can use this tutorial for example if you have one of these situations:
- How to setup OpenDNS on Windows 10 or Windows 8.
- How to use Google DNS in Windows 10 or Windows 8.
- How to use a custom DNS in Windows 10 or Windows 8.
- How to use OpenDNS in Windows 10 or Windows 8.
How to change DNS server address in Windows 10 & 8.
1. First of all right-click on the Network Icon in your Task Bar and choose Open Network and Sharing Centre
2. Once you’ve done that click on the currently active connection like shown below.
![Windows 10 Network Centre](http://windowsinstructed.com.www603.your-server.de.www603.your-server.de.www603.your-server.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2016-03-31_20-40-57.png)
3. Now in the Network Status dialog click on Properties. If you receive a User Account Control dialog then click on Yes.
4. Scroll in the “This connection uses the following items” list till you find Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then double-click or double-tap on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4).
5. In the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” dialog choose Use the Following DNS Server Addresses.
6. You can now enter your own DNS Server Addresses in the fields “Preferred DNS Server” and “Alternative DNS Server”.
7. Once you’ve entered all the DNS Server information you can click on OK and close all open dialogs. Your DNS servers will automatically refresh and Windows will start using them.