How to Flush Your Cache on Windows and Router

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I work a lot with DNS settings for my websites and apps.

Today I added a few new DNS entries to set up a new server. I used DNS propagation checkers and confirmed that the DNS entries were already updated internationally. But unfortunately, I myself couldn’t access the website on my Windows machine behind my Wifi router. I could, however, access the website with my smartphone after switching off Wifi there.

This left only one conclusion: My browser, Windows OS, or router cached the stale DNS entries.

So the natural question arises:

💬 Question: How to flush your browser cache, Windows cache, and router cache and reset the DNS entries so they’ll be loaded freshly from the name servers?

I’ll answer these three subproblems one by one in this short tutorial:

  • Step 1: Flush your browser DNS cache (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
  • Step 2: Flush your Windows DNS cache
  • Step 3: Flush your router DNS cache

Let’s dive into each of them one by one!

Step 1: Reset Your Browser Cache

First, reset your browser cache because it may store some DNS entries. I’ll show you how to flush your browser cache for the three most popular browsers on Windows:

  • Chrome
  • Edge
  • Firefox

Here’s how! 👇

Clear Cache In Chrome

  1. Open Chrome
  2. At the top right, click More with the three vertical dots
  3. Click More tools > Clear browsing data
  4. Choose a time range. To flush everything, select All time
  5. Check boxes next to Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files
  6. Click Clear data

👉 More here

Clear Cache In Microsoft Edge

Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > scroll down > click Choose what to clear > Change the Time range and check boxes next to Cookies and other site data and Cached images and files. Then click Clear now.

👉 More here

Clear Cache In Firefox

Click the menu button (three horizontal bars) and select Settings > Privacy & Security. Scroll down to Cookies and Site Data section and click Clear Data.... Remove check mark in front of Cookies and Site Data so that only Cached Web Content is checked. Click the Clear button.

👉 More here

Now your browser has no stale DNS entries — but in my case, this didn’t fix the problem. After all, your operating system may have cached it first!

Step 2: Reset Your Windows OS Cache

There’s a long and a short answer to the question on how to flush the Windows operating system cache. In my case, it worked with the shorter answer but you may want to use the long answer instead if you absolutely need to make sure your Windows DNS cache is empty.

How to Flush Your Windows Cache (Short Answer)

Type cmd into the Windows search field and press Enter. Type “ipconfig /flushdns” and press Enter.

How to Flush Your Windows Cache (Long Answer)

  • Type cmd into the Windows search field and press Enter.
  • Type “ipconfig /flushdns” and press Enter.
  • Type “ipconfig /registerdns” and press Enter.
  • Type “ipconfig /release” and press Enter.
  • Type “ipconfig /renew” and press Enter.
  • Type “netsh winsock reset” and press Enter.
  • Restart the computer.

    Step 3: Reset Your Router Cache

    This one is simple (although a bit time-consuming): To reset your router DNS cache for sure, unplug your router and leave it unplugged for 30 seconds or more. This will reset its DNS cache for sure. Done!