Why WmiPrvSE.exe is changing my preferred DNS each startup?

Question

Today I discover that WmiPrvSE.exe is changing my DNS settings on my main NIC at each startup. The following is an extract from Security event viewer following my registry Audit :

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-A5BA-3E3B0328C30D}" /> 
  <EventID>4657</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>0</Level> 
  <Task>12801</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x8020000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-05-19T22:17:28.512119300Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>237958</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="212" /> 
  <Channel>Security</Channel> 
  <Computer>Narus-PC</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="SubjectUserSid">S-1-5-18</Data> 
  <Data Name="SubjectUserName">NARUS-PC$</Data> 
  <Data Name="SubjectDomainName">WORKGROUP</Data> 
  <Data Name="SubjectLogonId">0x3e7</Data> 
  <Data Name="ObjectName">\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{0D87D42F-9740-4A6A-AA21-E48D267CCB3C}</Data> 
  <Data Name="ObjectValueName">NameServer</Data> 
  <Data Name="HandleId">0x2fc</Data> 
  <Data Name="OperationType">%%1905</Data> 
  <Data Name="OldValueType">%%1873</Data> 
  <Data Name="OldValue">8.8.8.8,8.8.4.4</Data> 
  <Data Name="NewValueType">%%1873</Data> 
  <Data Name="NewValue">31.7.56.104,119.81.242.146</Data> 
  <Data Name="ProcessId">0xf2c</Data> 
  <Data Name="ProcessName">C:\Windows\System32\wbem\WmiPrvSE.exe</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

I had some fun few months ago with DNS tools like OpenDNS, OpenNIC, DNSCrypt, Unbound etc ... also I installed ProXPN. My goal was to study DNS leaks while on VPN and discovers tools that allow to perform DNS request securely.

Anyway, I uninstalled everything a long time ago, as properly that possible (as far as I know). But I suppose it is related to my issue.

I suppose WmiPrvSE.exe is just doing his job becaused something else saked to change DNS, and it's not the root cause, right ? How can I investigate deeper ? How can I prevent this to happen ?

Kind regards, Narus !

Answer 1

so after all I had a "proXPN VPN" service remaining. Every time I restart the service, my network configuration revert back with the same incorrect settings. So I installed proXPN again et uninstalled it using CCleaner. Now the "proXPN VPN" service is gone, and everything is fine.