The Hosts file in Windows 10/8/7, is used to map hostnames to IP addresses. This Hosts file is located deep down in the Windows folder. It is a plain text file, and the size of the original default Hosts file is around 824 bytes.
Hosts File in Windows
Oct 04, 2019 Windows 10 lost iTunes Library I upgraded to Windows 10 and I have no trouble running iTunes, however my entire iTunes Library has disappeared. I only see what CDs I have copied since the upgrade but not any of the music I had before. Jun 18, 2016 The Hosts file in Windows 10/8/7, is used to map host names to IP addresses. If for some reason, you find that your Hosts file has been compromised.
In this post, we will see its location and also how to manage, lock or edit the Hosts file.
Host file location
The Hosts file in Windows is located at the following location:
Lock Hosts file to prevent hijacking
Imagine clicking on www.thewindowsclub.com and seeing a completely different website load in your browser. Malware can redirect Web addresses on your computer by altering your hosts file. This is referred to as the Host File Hijack.
To prevent Host file hijacks, you may navigate to it, right-click on it, select Properties and make it a Read-only file. This will lock down your Hosts file and prevent anyone or any malware from writing to it.
Block website using Hosts file
To block a website using the Hosts File, simply add the following entry:
127.0.0.1 blocksite.com
Although I do not do it, many users like to manually add entries to it in order to block the opening of one or more particular websites. Others, like to download and use List from well-known sources like mvps.org, to add entries which block malware sites from opening.
Edit Hosts file
If you need to edit the Hosts file, navigate to the following folder location:
Here you will see the Hosts file. Right-click on it and select Notepad. Make the changes and Save.
But sometimes, even when you are logged on with administrative credentials, you may receive the following error message: Best cnc machine software.
Access to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc hosts was denied
Or
Cannot create the C:WindowsSystem32driversetchosts file. Make sure that the path and file name are correct.
In this case, type Notepad in start search and right-click on the Notepad result. Select Run as administrator. Open the Hosts file, make the necessary changes, and then click Save.
HostsMan
While you can always manually manage or edit Hosts file manually, I would like to suggest that you use a third-party freeware tool like HostsMan to do it.
HostsMan is a feature-rich tool that lets you add, remove, edit entries in the Hosts file. It also lets you easily add third-party Hosts lists that help in blocking malware sites and lets you easily enable or disable the hosts file. It includes a built-in hosts file updater & a hosts editor. It lets you scan the hosts file for errors, duplicates, and possible hijacks – and also lets you create an Exclusion list. One more useful feature it offers is the Hosts file backup manager. Backup your Hosts file to a safe place and use it to restore it, should the need arise.
Hostman also lets you Flush DNS cache, open Hosts with a text editor, count the number of hosts, find duplicates, replace IP, scan hosts for malicious entries, rearrange hosts, manage DNS Client Service and more. In short, its the only Hosts Manager that you will even need. You can download it from its home page. SysMate Hosts File Manager is another tool that lets you do so.
How to manually reset Hosts file back to default in Windows may also interest you.
If your browser has been hijacked, you might find this post on Browser Hijacking and Free Browser Hijacker Removal Tools helpful.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
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When you encounter iTunes errors like 3194, it is recommended to edit the hosts file. After a certain point, you have edited your hosts file so many times that the original version is all but gone. Of course, you would have ideally created a backup copy of the original but in the event that you didn’t, here’s how to reset/restore the hosts file in Mac/Windows.
Restoring your hosts file is slightly different for Mac and Windows. And even within Windows, it’s different for the various versions that exist. Just to make sure you don’t get lost in the process, we’ve provided the support page for Windows (resetting hosts file). Make sure you check that too.
Reset the Hosts file on Mac:
Itunes Host File Windows 10 2017
On a Mac, the hosts file mostly contains nothing more than a couple of lines of active code. The rest of the stuff is just commented out (description of the hosts file itself).
To reset the hosts file, we’re going to open the hosts file in a text editor, replace the entire file with the default text and save it. That’s it.
- From the Finder, navigate to Go → Go to Folder
- Type this in the Go to Folder window: /private/etc/hosts
- From the finder window, click and drag the hosts file to the desktop. (we’re doing this because we can’t open the hosts file directly and edit it)
- Double-click the hosts file (on the desktop) and it will open in TextEdit (or any default text editor on your Mac)
- Erase everything in it. Copy the following piece of text and paste it into the hosts file.
- Save this file
- Open the Go to Folder window and open /private/etc/hosts again.
- Drag the hosts file on desktop back to the /etc/ folder. You will be asked about the existing hosts file. Choose Replace and authenticate with the admin password when asked for it.
Restart your Mac and restart iTunes to get things rolling again.
Reset the Hosts file on Windows:
The easiest way to do this would be to use Microsoft’s Fix It for resetting the hosts file. If you click on this Fix it link, it downloads a msi file. Running this takes you through a wizard which fixes the hosts file automatically.
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The Fix It method doesn’t work for Windows 8. Here’s how to manually reset the hosts file in Windows 8 (the manual method works in all other OS versions too):
- Open Notepad
- Go to this page and copy the text of the hosts file for your OS version. Different hosts file contents exist for different Windows versions (although they vary slightly).
- Once you’ve pasted the text into Notepad, save the file as “hosts” – include the quotes. (this is because you don’t want to save the file as a txt file). Save it on the desktop so that you can easily access it in the next few steps.
- Now, open this location: %WinDir%System32DriversEtc. You can do this by opening Run and pasting the location here.
- Once the folder opens, drag and drop the hosts file from desktop into the folder. You will be prompted to replace the file and then prompted for the admin password.
In a Windows machine, make sure you copy-paste the hosts file content that pertains to your OS version.
Restore Hosts File Windows 10
With this huge update/refresh to the hosts file, you might want to restart your computer. The hosts file is usually used just to map web addresses to specific IP addresses and to block websites (by re-directing/mapping them to invalid/incorrect IPs).
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