A hosts Mapping Can Resemble a Hidden Proxy
Check local name mapping when a website reaches an unexpected address even though no forward proxy is selected.
A local hosts entry can send a hostname to an unexpected IP without enabling a forward proxy. For a locally resolved connection, the mapping changes the address chosen for that name; it does not perform a proxy handshake.
On Windows, inspect the relevant entry in the system hosts file and the resolver-cache view:
ipconfig /displaydnsMicrosoft documents that this cache includes hosts-file entries as well as recently obtained DNS records. A successful lookup therefore does not establish that the answer came from a DNS server.
Keep address selection and proxy selection as separate observations. Changing browser proxy preferences cannot remove an unrelated hosts mapping, and finding a mapping does not prove that every application resolves that destination locally.