Hosts file changing

It provides the most stable development environment. Other methods can cause configuration issues after development is complete. Note: Remember to undo the changes you make after you're done viewing your site, as any of these changes will prevent your domain from loading the correct DNS.

If you do not see it on your current Start page, begin typing Notepad, and a search box will appear on the right side of the screen with a list of programs under it. Notepad should be at the top of this list. Right-click on Notepad. You will see options appear on the bottom portion of the Start Page. Select Run as administrator.

Note: Performing this action may cause Windows User Account Control to prompt you with a warning, or if you are logged in as another user, a request for the Administrator password.

This step is necessary to modify system files such as the hosts file. On Windows 98 and Windows 95, the order may be the hostname , IP address. To locate Mac hosts files location: Navigate to the Terminal application. Replace Replace domain. Additional domains, subdomains, or addon domains such as www. To open the terminal: Go to Menu. Let's see what I can find Update : This morning, Process Monitor showed a bunch of file activity. And It looks like Windows Defender did it.

Use Process Monitor with a filter to watch the hosts file. Run it long enough and you will see everything that changes the file. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Something is changing my hosts file without asking Ask Question. Asked 10 years, 4 months ago. Active 4 years, 6 months ago. Viewed 24k times. First: I can't find any information on this phenomenon, not anywhere on the net.

Improve this question. Staplerfahrer Staplerfahrer 1 1 gold badge 3 3 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. I dunno, I would suspect adware that is trying to serve ads from doubleclick. I know. MalwareBytes comes up clean, so do Avast!

There are about 15 entries in that file, and all of them point to localhost so it's not like there's malware trying to re-route any domain names. That's it. If that's the case, no worries — your security software should add all those entries back to your hosts file. We'll go over how this works in the next section.

Don't want friends or family to visit certain websites on your computer? Or are you like me and get distracted by all the cat photos on the internet? Also, close the browser windows that are open and reopen them. The one downside is that this only works on one device — you could just reach for your phone and browse Reddit on that instead. Still, it's a neat way to create some friction on your work computer.

This leads nicely into the last trick, which is to use the hosts file to make your life a little bit easier. If you spend a lot of time adjusting your router's settings, or you have a cool project running on a Raspberry Pi , you'll know that typing in a long IP address is a drag. Instead, you can use the hosts file to make connecting to other devices on your local network much faster. For example, if your router is at Otherwise your browser might not recognize. Fortunately there are a whole lot of valid TLDs nowadays.

Again, the one downside to this method is that it only works on once device. You'd have to update the hosts files on your other devices to enable the same shortcuts. And that should be just about everything you need to know about the hosts file on Windows And a lot of this knowledge should carry over to Linux and macOS.

Did you find this helpful? Are there any other hosts file tricks you know? Let me know over on Twitter. If you read this far, tweet to the author to show them you care.

Tweet a thanks. Learn to code for free. Get started. Forum Donate. Kris Koishigawa. But knowing where it is and how it works can be helpful if: you're having trouble with local development you suspect malware has tampered with the hosts file you want a quick and simple way to block some websites or if you want to set up some helpful shortcuts to internal IP addresses In this article we'll cover what a hosts file is , how to edit it on Windows , and we'll go over some neat tricks you can do with it.

What's a hosts file anyway? For example, here's a line you'll find in many hosts files on Windows, Linux, and macOs: Why hosts files fell out of favor The hosts files system worked well for the early internet, but there were a few major problems.