2009-09-19

Edit hosts file in Vista/Windows 7

 

What is the hosts file?

The hosts file contains a list of IP address to hostname mappings and can be useful especially for web developers if they need to point a hostname to a specific IP address while developing or testing a website, without having to change settings on a DNS server. On Linux and Unix systems it is typically at /etc/hosts and on Windows systems (Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7) at c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Errors when editing the file

Depending on operative system you may get derrors below when trying to edit and save the hosts file:

“Contact administrator”, “Permission denied”, “Path is not correct”.

Run as administrator

What you need to do this to open Notepad as administrator. Right click on Notepad and choose Run as Administrator. Then browse to the hosts file (you may need to turn on “View all files” as the hosts file does not have the txt extension”. Now, just edit and save the file.

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