What is the domain firstparty.monitoring.windows.netdummy I keep seeing in DNS queries? Is it part of Windows?

Question

I was reviewing my DNS logs in Azure and one of the entries consistently in the Top Domains queries was firstparty.monitoring.windows.netdummy. My google-fu came up empty on the internet, outside of an old archived question from MSDN regarding the same domain found in a Registry setting.

Here is the entry in my DNS log:

Link to cross post on MSDN: weird-registry-settings-on-azure-vm-2016-windows-error-reporting-what-is

Is this possibly the domain for Windows Telemetry metrics to be sent to Microsoft servers for product/user feedback of system usage?

Because of that other question, I went ahead and searched the registry on my W11 Enterprise machine, on both a Server 2016 & 2019 Datacenter Azure VM to see if I could find the reference, but it could not be found in part or in whole.

Any insight here would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Hello there,

It is possible for Microsoft to collect the data but this specific service name is not listed in the lists the endpoints . To confirm this just configure the Windows diagnostic data to never and check if the service is triggered .

By doing so we can find if this is on the component of the Windows diagnostic.

Configure Windows diagnostic data in your organization https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/privacy/configure-windows-diagnostic-data-in-your-organization

Diagnostics, feedback, and privacy in Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/diagnostics-feedback-and-privacy-in-windows-28808a2b-a31b-dd73-dcd3-4559a5199319

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions please let me know and I will be glad to help you out.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--