/etc/hosts on Windows

etc-hosts-on-win.md

1. Get your IP Address

echo `ifconfig $(netstat -nr | grep -e default -e "^0\.0\.0\.0" | head -1 | awk '{print $NF}') | grep -e "inet " | sed -e 's/.*inet //' -e 's/ .*//' -e 's/.*\://'`

2. Modify your hosts file

For Windows 10 and 8

1. Press the Windows key.
2. Type Notepad in the search field.
3. In the search results, right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
4. From Notepad, open the following file: c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts
5. Make the necessary changes to the file.
6. Click File > Save to save your changes.

For Windows 7 and Vista

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories.
2. Right-click Notepad and select Run as administrator.
3. Click Continue on the Windows needs your permission UAC window.
4. When Notepad opens, click File > Open.
5. In the File name field, type C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.
6. Click Open.
7. Make the necessary changes to the file.
8. Click File > Save to save your changes.

For Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Notepad.
2. Click File > Open.
3. In the File name field, type C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts.
4. Click Open.
5. Make the necessary changes to the file.
6. Click File > Save to save your changes.

To edit the hosts file in Windows 10 you need to do it from another OS, no matter if it is a live USB or just another OS in your computer, this is due to the fact that the system automatically opens this file just when you start your machine, and therefore it cannot be modified at the same time. To override this, you only need to do what I just mentioned, so that the hosts file doesn't get open and you can easily modify it. The same happens with the rest of the system files.
I hope I'm helpful.

I'm on windows 10 and have customers on Win10. I see zero evidence that any of this has any basis in reality.
I edit my hosts file just fine from an admin cmd prompt.

@frankarma is cooked

wow, well, you guys seem to be having all this fun editing your 'hosts' file, the problem is, and I'm running windows 7 because windows 10 is absolute GARBAGE, I, for the life of me, can't SAVE the file!! I've tried it in DOS, I've tried using cmd, I've tried powershell, I've tried just using notepad, I've tried attribing it to different attribs to make it so I can write to the file, I've even tried editting the autoexec.bat to edit the file to add the correct address for my WMP and NOTHING!! I am so frustrated! I've been working on this thing for three hours I'm ready to light my computer on fire and run down the street naked!!! HELP!!!!

I had the same problem. The workaround is pretty simple, copy the file to your desktop, edit it, then move it back.

Don't ask me why. :)

Alright, Do i need to restart my system after making the changes? It doesn't seem to be working instantly.

@beanstalkim @metalgina The hosts file is owned by SYSTEM. In order to edit it with notepad, you'll need to run notepad as an administrator.

@priteshjha4u Running "ipconfig /flushdns" in command prompt should force Windows to reload the hosts file, if I remember correctly.

The hosts file works with all versions of windows, in most operating systems use a hosts file including your android phone. When editing the hosts file simply make the changes and then save the file, but since windows will not allow you to save it where it resides, save it to your desktop and then manually copy it to C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc. You will be prompted to overwrite the file select yes. Remember when you finish editing the hosts file to strip off the extension ".txt" for it to work. There is no need to reboot your system, just close and re-open your browser of choice. When editing the host file on android phones you will need to reboot the phone. for the changes to take effect

Additionally do not use your WAN IP in the hosts file. you should use either
0.0.0.0
or
127.0.0.1

Your IP address can change too often

thanks..it worked.

@beanstalkim
Thanks your solution worked!

Don't forget to issue :

ipconfig /flushdns

To flush cached ip's

thanks!

Team, I don't know if my question is valid here or not but trying hard with Google i came here on this link... and i think i will get help here...

**I want to use API service... And to get the service i need to generate Access Token... To generate Access Token I need to provide

Redirect URL..

I am trying to use " http:/127.0.01/ as Redirect URL as i want it on local server

But its not working...**

Can someone help me ? If this is irrelevant Question here then i can delete it..

@MoraleJ : If you want to publish anything from your own computer (1270.0.1), you need to install configure and run some form of HTTP server, like Apache or Microsoft Internet Information Server service.

I can't see the repo etc in notepad. Additionally when i navigate on my explorer I see the file hosts but it's encoding when I open it

See my answer here

Another way to edit the hosts file directly is to use I/O redirection from cmd. It will not restrict you from editing the hosts file like the gui.

1. Launch cmd with elevated privileges (as administrator)

2. cd / navigate to the etc folder then issue your host entries using the following syntax

echo host_entry >> target_file

e.g. echo 127.0.0.1 localhost >> hosts

This will append your host entries at the end of the hosts file. Make sure you use the double greater than sign >> because using a single one > results in ovewriting whatever is already in the hosts file.

I had trouble saving mine too, but it was actually a very simple reason. Right-click on the hosts file, opened properties, unchecked the "read-only" box, then saved it without issue. Now it resolves through DNS.

Team, I don't know if my question is valid here or not but trying hard with Google i came here on this link... and i think i will get help here...

**I want to use API service... And to get the service i need to generate Access Token... To generate Access Token I need to provide

Redirect URL..

I am trying to use " http:/127.0.01/ as Redirect URL as i want it on local server

But its not working...**

Can someone help me ? If this is irrelevant Question here then i can delete it..

Possible redirect and go install extension is work fine:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/url-auto-redirector/mckfcfnegaimgcgepikhdnajpkkhdnkn

Team, I don't know if my question is valid here or not but trying hard with Google i came here on this link... and i think i will get help here...
I want to use API service... And to get the service i need to generate Access Token... To generate Access Token I need to provide
Redirect URL..
I am trying to use " http:/127.0.01/ as Redirect URL as i want it on local server
But its not working...
Can someone help me ? If this is irrelevant Question here then i can delete it..

Possible redirect and go install extension is work fine:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/url-auto-redirector/mckfcfnegaimgcgepikhdnajpkkhdnkn

It doesn't seem like any of the comments here are relevant anyway, 90% of them are actually about Windows filesystem (although the people talking about it probably don't know they are talking about it). Ironically the reason some people are having trouble editing their hosts files is because it can be a really bad idea to edit the hosts file if you don't know what you are doing, so Windows makes it very difficult to do on purpose.

(aside: Hosts File Editor is a pretty nice little utility to do this, and it has some neat features like pinging endpoints for verification, "hot swapping" hosts files, and enabling/disabling them from the system tray)

But In Response to Your Issue

It sounds like you are trying to register for some service that wants you to provide a URL in order to get an access token. I think Twilio does things like this, as do some email marketing services. If I understand correctly, you will not be able to do this using your local machine as a redirect, because the service will want a publicly facing URL, probably for verification. The IP address 127.0.0.1 is a loopback address (as is any IP address beginning with 127.), so it is only accessible from the machine itself by design.

Yeah, just to give it's own thread, there is a great little app to edit Windows hosts files (as well as swap them on the fly, ping endpoints, cut/copy/paste multiple entries, and disable/enable entries using check-boxes). It's called (brace yourselves, it's a super creative title): Hosts File Editor

Yeah, just to give it's own thread, there is a great little app to edit Windows hosts files (as well as swap them on the fly, ping endpoints, cut/copy/paste multiple entries, and disable/enable entries using check-boxes). It's called (brace yourselves, it's a super creative title): Hosts File Editor

Very nice. If I'm ever stuck on Windows (so straightforward on Linux), I'll install that.

Thank you, but is there any idea about using the command line? I feel pretty uncomfortable with this solution.

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Thank you, very good tutorial

Thank you, but is there any idea about using the command line? I feel pretty uncomfortable with this solution.

@hophiducanh : if you want to do everything from the command line, you need to install some form of 3rd party line editor (ported from Linux or other flavors of UNIX) to be able to edit the file. You would also need to make sure that the file is not in use by other apps or services, as well as making sure that the file is not write protected.

hostname -I
😂