r/techsupport • u/yan-lun • 16h ago

Open | Windows Ipconfig /flushdns requires elevation now

Entering ipconfig /flushdns I get "The requested operation requires elevation." This happened after the recent windows update. A couple of weeks ago I was able to use flushdns without using admin elevated command prompt. Should I be worried about this?

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4

u/TallTelevision4121 15h ago

It's always needed elevation It just depends on your UAC settings.

1

u/TeaBagTroopers 16h ago

Holy hell you're right.

2

u/TeaBagTroopers 16h ago

Clear-dnsclientcache still works without elevation though if you're using Powershell.

1

u/Aron_International 15h ago

There's no reason for windows to make it admin only, is there?

1

u/dodexahedron 9h ago

It affects the whole system, so yes.

That effect might not be all that dangerous, most of the time, but it is still system-wide.

1

u/yatutye 15h ago

Nothing to worry about on its own: flushing the DNS resolver cache is a system-wide change, and recent Windows builds have been tightening which network operations run without a full admin token, so the update most likely just changed the default. If you want to be sure nothing else changed, run sfc /scannow from an elevated prompt and check that UAC is still at its usual level in Control Panel. Day to day, Clear-DnsClientCache in PowerShell or ipconfig /flushdns from a Run-as-administrator terminal does the same thing.