Unable to edit and save hosts file in windows 7

Friday, October 23, AM. Tim is correct and his method will work. Another way to do this is to drag a copy of the hosts file onto your desktop. Open it in Notepad, make your edits, and save the file. Drag the copy back to its original location.

When asked if you want to replace the original, say YES. Then you'll get an elevation prompt from UAC. Acknowledge the prompt and the edited hosts file will replace the original file. This works because when you copy the hosts file to the desktop, the permissions on the copy will allow editing by the standard user. Friday, October 23, PM. Very true Arthur, you can certainly do it that way. However, I prefer not to mess with permissions if I can help it, especially something within the system directory.

Using the Notepad method is quick just one extra click and also temporary since as soon as you close Notepad the Administrator token is discarded. As an update to this, if trying to edit the "hosts" file in Win 7 Found this on wiki, and it appears to be true.

Monday, March 14, PM. I tried to elevate the both notepad and cmd but still no luck, so I edited the host file from safe mode, it works perfectly. Friday, January 20, AM. Friday, January 27, AM. Dose not work for me at all.

I run note pad as administrator - still get access denied. I can not change ownership or permissions of the file or the folder, even when antivirus is turned off. Even running in safe mode did not help. Friday, June 15, PM. Paulg3: Try the method that I described in my post above. Saturday, June 16, AM. Login to an administrator account. Click on the tab called view.

Select the radio button for Show hidden files, folders and drivers —ON. In order to do this, you can right click on the notepad. To do that, select the drive where you installed Windows. At this point, you might not have another option to proceed or select from. The window would be empty. You can now see all the files located in etc folder.

Now, you will have the host file information open in the notepad which you had already initiated before with administrative privileges. Make whatever changes you as you wish. Example: If you need to block a web site called www.

When you are trying to modify a file within the C drive, you need admin privileges. Without admin privileges, you cannot save any modifications to the hosts file.

The problem is Windows makes it a tad bit harder to open hosts files with admin rights. That being said, it is easier than you think. You can also click on the same option appearing in the right panel of the start menu.

This action will open a Browse window. Now, make the changes you want to make. Unlike before, you can save the hosts file because you are editing the hosts file with administrative rights. That is the reason why we opened the Notepad as an administrator. You dont have to change any permissions at all as long as you are a local admin on the computer. My computers are on a domain, so there might be some other permissions that I can't find that might be causing some of the issues. Actually its much simpler than this.

Right click the hosts file and on the drop-down menu click on properties. I have read to delete everything after the " Go ahead and delete it all anyways and then re-apply your immunization on Spybot afterwards to put the correct ones back in. I in no way condone editing critical system files unless you know what you are doing. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Windows Client. Sign in. United States English. Ask a question.