{"id":2336,"date":"2020-06-10T00:58:42","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T16:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wesbytes.com\/guide\/?post_type=kb&#038;p=2336"},"modified":"2026-03-16T16:51:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T08:51:38","slug":"7-essential-steps-edit-hosts-file","status":"publish","type":"kb","link":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/kb\/7-essential-steps-edit-hosts-file","title":{"rendered":"Hosts File: 7 Easy Steps to Edit Safely"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>How to Edit Hosts File.<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Hosts file is a file where you can manually enter a hostname and IP address pair to bypass the DNS server.<\/p>\n<p>By default, you cannot see the hidden file in the system folders.It is used to map hostnames (in other words domains) to IP addresses. With the hosts file you can change the IP address that you resolve a given domain name to. This change only affects your own computer without affecting how the domain is resolved worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>To show hidden folders in Windows 7, open a windows explorer, click \u201cOrganize\u201d drop down button and select \u201cFolder and search options\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First, from the Folder Options, choose \u201cShow hidden files, folders and drives, press Apply and OK to save the setting.<\/p>\n<p>Second,\u00a0 access to hosts file\u2019s directory to make the change.<\/p>\n<p>May open with cmd, %systemroot%\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\<\/p>\n<p>or access to My Computer -&gt; C drive -&gt; \u00a0Windows -&gt; System 32 -&gt; drivers -&gt; etc<\/p>\n<p>Third, double click host file to open and edit the file.<\/p>\n<p>Then, note that this method for editing the Hosts file will not work. You will get a message saying you do not have permission to save to this location.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Beside that, In order to edit the hosts file, you have to click\u00a0<strong>Start<\/strong>\u00a0button and type in\u00a0<strong>Notepad\u00a0<\/strong>and then right click and choose\u00a0<strong>Run as Administrator<\/strong>\u00a0to open the hosts file.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now navigate to drivers\/etc\/ folder again and make sure to choose. All files for File Types otherwise you won\u2019t see the Host file.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Make your changes and click save to save all your changes. You will not get the error about not being able to modify it. Learn how the guide of web hosting\u00a0and Please refer to the following articles for the procedures.<\/p>\n<p><strong>KnowledgeBase: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/kb\/web-hosting-features-guide\/\">Web Hosting Features Guide<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Edit Hosts File. Hosts file is a file where you can manually enter a hostname and IP address pair to bypass the DNS server. By default, you cannot see the hidden file in the system folders.It is used to map hostnames (in other words domains) to IP addresses. With the hosts file you can change the IP address&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"kbtopic":[58],"kbtag":[1258,1259],"class_list":["post-2336","kb","type-kb","status-publish","hentry","kbtopic-domain-name-server-dns","kbtag-edit-hosts-file","kbtag-windows-7"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/2336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2336"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/2336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6336,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb\/2336\/revisions\/6336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kbtopic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtopic?post=2336"},{"taxonomy":"kbtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.servergigabit.com\/guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kbtag?post=2336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}