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Are there any negative effects to disabling DNS caching in Windows 7 by disabling the "DNS Client" in Windows Services?

I would assume browsing would slow down a bit depending on what DNS servers are configured to be used, anything else?

Any positive benefits?

Does disabling DNS Client clear the local DNS cache?

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  • Why would you want to do this? If you're so borderline you're seriously considering turning off DNS caching, perhaps you should be running a lightweight OS?
    – Phoshi
    Feb 28, 2011 at 21:43
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    Its not a matter of why, its a matter of understanding the ramifications of doing it, I asked specific questions, thanks.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2011 at 21:59
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    IE definitely caches dns support.microsoft.com/kb/263558
    – user102295
    Oct 20, 2011 at 15:35
  • Nice article n4th4n
    – Moab
    Oct 20, 2011 at 17:29

4 Answers 4

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Disabling the "DNS client" in Windows will not stop you receiving web pages. Generally you receive dns records from your service provider. "DNS client" service simply acts a cache.

However it will slow network searches down or browsing for other computers on your network, because it will have to build the list every-time. So if you have only one computer on your network, no biggie.

If you have host files, then disabling "DNS Client" service is not any issue, nor is it a real issue in the first place.

No turning off your DNS client does not clear your cache. Benefit none really except a little speed increase. People get this idea that it will stop pop-ups and block ads, but most browsers will do this for you.

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  • Thanks for answering my questions lanN , yes I use hosts and have configured my DNS in my router to use OpenDNS servers, seems to be working great so far. I guess I can hard code my computers and printers on the LAN into my hosts file.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:09
  • @Moab you sure can thats what host files are for
    – IanN
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:17
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A simpler way to clear the local DNS cache is (in a cmd window)

C:\> ipconfig /flushdns

I am not 100% certain, but you may find that disabling the DNS Client may well stop all DNS lookups from working at all.

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  • I know how to clear it that way, I was wondering is disabling the service would do it also. thanks.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2011 at 21:57
  • No, I am posting here right now with it disabled. Navigation seems to be the same responsiveness as before I did.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:00
  • @Moab: I think that most browsers do their own DNS caching to improve responsiveness.
    – afrazier
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:06
  • @ afrazier, I know they cache a lot of things, but did not know they cached DNS, would be interesting to know if they do for sure.
    – Moab
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:25
  • I know that if I change something on my DNS server I have to do a /flushdns and close and re-open my browser for it to be detected on my local computer, so yes, Firefox certainly does it.
    – Majenko
    Feb 28, 2011 at 22:32
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I got a solid answer at below website for how to clease or stop DNS cache with diffrent-2 ways.

http://networkingstudy.net/forums/index.php?topic=2126.0

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    – DanteTheEgregore
    Oct 2, 2013 at 14:02
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Disabling the DNS Client service will stop your computer from registering it's domain name with your local DNS server if you're on an Active Directory domain. You should instead reduce the cache duration in the registry.

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