The hosts file can be used to map website or domain names, such as facebook.com, to IP addresses. If the hosts file contains incorrect mappings, however, the result is that you can’t access these websites.
Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista
To edit the hosts file in a notepad editor do:
- Click Start then enter cmd in the search box.
- Right-click the cmd program and select Run as administrator
- In the command prompt that shows enter the following 2 commands
copy C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts C:\Windows\Temp
notepad C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
- The first of these two commands is just to make a copy of the hosts file, so that you can restore it later if you want to.
- The second command opens the hosts file in Notepad so you can edit it. Normally you can remove all lines in that file that doesn’t start with a #, except if the line says: 127.0.0.1 localhost
- Save the hosts file
Windows XP
To edit the hosts file in a notepad editor do:
- Click Start then Run….
- In the Run dialog type cmd and hit Enter
- In the command prompt that appears enter the following 2 commands:
copy C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts C:\Windows\Temp
notepad C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
- The first of these two commands is just to make a copy of the hosts file, so that you can restore it later if you want to.
- The second command opens the hosts file in Notepad so you can edit it. Normally you can remove all lines in that file that doesn’t start with a #, except if the line says: 127.0.0.1 localhost
- Save the hosts file
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