How to edit hosts file via CMD?

windows-7 cmd hosts
omnix picture omnix · Nov 19, 2010 · Viewed 102.3k times · Source

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

Andrew Barber picture Andrew Barber · Nov 19, 2010

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.

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