How to edit hosts file via CMD? [closed]

Question

Hello I'd like to block some websites directly from the command prompt.

echo like this:

0.0.0.0 websitename.com 

How can I do this? (OS: Windows 7)

Answer 1

echo 0.0.0.0 websitename.com >> %WINDIR%\System32\Drivers\Etc\Hosts

the >> appends the output of echo to the file.

Note that there are two reasons this might not work like you want it to. You may be aware of these, but I mention them just in case.

First, it won't affect a web browser, for example, that already has the current, "real" IP address resolved. So, it won't always take effect right away.

Second, it requires you to add an entry for every host name on a domain; just adding websitename.com will not block www.websitename.com, for example.

Answer 2

Use Hosts Commander. It's simple and powerful. You can download it here.

Examples of using

hosts add another.dev 192.168.1.1 # Remote host hosts add test.local # 127.0.0.1 used by default hosts set myhost.dev # new comment hosts rem *.local hosts enable local* hosts disable localhost 

...and many others...

Help

Usage:     hosts - run hosts command interpreter     hosts <command> <params> - execute hosts command  Commands:     add  <host> <aliases> <addr> # <comment>   - add new host     set  <host|mask> <addr> # <comment>        - set ip and comment for host     rem  <host|mask>   - remove host     on   <host|mask>   - enable host     off  <host|mask>   - disable host     view [all] <mask>  - display enabled and visible, or all hosts     hide <host|mask>   - hide host from 'hosts view'     show <host|mask>   - show host in 'hosts view'     print      - display raw hosts file     format     - format host rows     clean      - format and remove all comments     rollback   - rollback last operation     backup     - backup hosts file     restore    - restore hosts file from backup     recreate   - empty hosts file     open       - open hosts file in notepad