The hosts file is a crucial system file in Windows that maps hostnames to IP addresses. It allows you to manually control the IP address associated with a particular hostname, which can be useful for various purposes such as blocking access to specific websites, redirecting domains to different IP addresses, or testing website changes before they go live.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of finding and editing the hosts file in Windows 7 and Vista.
Locating the Hosts File in Windows 7
To find the hosts file in Windows 7, follow these steps:
Click on the Start button, then All Programs, and then Accessories.
Find the Notepad application.
Right-click on the Notepad application icon and select Run as Administrator from the menu that appears. You may get a User Account Control (UAC) warning after doing so; just click Yes on the window that appears to accept changes.
After Notepad has loaded, navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc directory.
If you’re not seeing any files in the etc directory, it’s because all of the files here don’t have any file extensions, and Notepad is only looking for files with .txt extensions. To fix that, select ‘All Files’ from the drop-down in the lower right corner of the open window. This will then display all the files in the directory.
Double-click on the hosts file to load it into Notepad.
Once you’ve made your edits, overwrite the existing hosts file and make sure that you haven’t accidentally added a .txt extension to the file. The hosts file needs to remain exactly that — it should keep the hosts file name with no extensions whatsoever, or the OS won’t recognize the file.
Locating the Hosts File in Windows Vista
The process for finding the hosts file in Windows Vista is similar to Windows 7:
Click on the Start button, then All Programs, and then Accessories.
Find the Notepad application.
Right-click on the Notepad application icon and select Run as Administrator from the menu that appears. You may get a User Account Control (UAC) warning after doing so; just click Yes on the window that appears to accept changes.
After Notepad has loaded, navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc directory.
If you’re not seeing any files in the etc directory, it’s because all of the files here don’t have any file extensions, and Notepad is only looking for files with .txt extensions. To fix that, select ‘All Files’ from the drop-down in the lower right corner of the open window. This will then display all the files in the directory.
Double-click on the hosts file to load it into Notepad.
As with Windows 7, make sure to overwrite the existing hosts file without adding any file extensions.
Editing the Hosts File
Once you’ve located the hosts file, you can edit it to suit your needs. Here are some common use cases:
Blocking access to specific websites: You can edit the hosts file to block access to certain websites by mapping their domain names to the loopback address (127.0.0.1) or a non-existent IP address (0.0.0.0).
Redirecting domains to different IP addresses: You can redirect traffic from one domain to another by mapping the domain name to a specific IP address.
Testing website changes locally: In website development, you can use the hosts file to test website updates locally before updating the DNS records. This allows developers to debug or preview websites using custom domain names or specific IP addresses.
Website migration: Hosts files can be temporarily modified to point the domain to the new server’s IP address. This allows for testing and verification of website functionality on the new host before updating the DNS records.
Remember to save the hosts file after making your changes, and ensure that you haven’t accidentally added a .txt extension to the file name.