How often does a Windows 10 AD Client refresh it’s DNS caches and how can I can control it

cachedomain-name-systemwindows 10

We had some DNS issues this morning and after they were fixed we were asked to apply

ipconfig /flushdns

To refresh our local caches.

Some people got the changes automatically while others had to apply this. That got me wondering as where in Windows 10 this setting is controlled. Is it server controlled or does each client have it's own rules.

Best Answer

I concur with Joeqwerty but would like to add you can check the length of the TTL of DNS records by running the command ipconfig /displaydns. This will show all the dns records your machine has cached and how long it will keep it for. If your machine has a lot of cached entries you can pipe the command to a txt file so you can search easily e.g. ipconfig /displaydns > dnscache.txt. If you keep running the command you should see the expire time in seconds decrease.

If your query is regarding DNS records that you set up in your own organisation than you can edit the TTL of the record. Open DNS management and ensure you have have advanced view, go to a DNS record and you will see the TTL. You can increase/decrease this to your liking assuming you are allowed to.

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