There are many reasons for which you would want to block a website on your computer. For example, if you do not want your kids to access news websites, then you can try blocking all the popular news websites on your PC. The most popular way of blocking web site domains is by using the hosts file. But the hosts file in Windows is buried deep inside the system folders and editing it requires administrator level privileges. Instead of editing the hosts file manually, you can use a third party app called SiteLocker to block websites easily. This SiteLocker tool also uses the hosts file method to block websites but allows you to block or unblock sites easily through its simple GUI.
SiteLocker can be downloaded from the Hekasoft website. The download is available in two flavors – setup containing adware and a clean setup but available through an ad proxy. If you do not want to install unsolicited software on your computer, then choose the second clean download. After the installation, you can launch SiteLocker from its desktop shortcut. You may have to right-click on the shortcut and choose Run as administrator to run thsis program with administrator privileges, so that it can make changes to the hosts file.
The program has a very easy to learn interface. In order to lock a website, type its domain name in the URL field and click on the Lock button. That domain name would be added to the hosts file automatically and will be locked for all applications. If later you want to unblock that website, then you can select it from the list and click on the Unlock button.
The Lock+ button does the same thing as the Lock button, but in addition it lets you specify the reason of blocking that website. You can choose the reason from advertisement, scam, malware, spam and tracking cookies. You can also add a little note of why you blocked that website.
The Hekasoft SiteLocker also allows you to download a database of the websites which should be blocked. You can select File → Hekasoft Database to open the database update dialog. Here you can click on the Update button to download the latest database of the blockable sites. As soon as the download is completed, this database is automatically added to the Windows hosts file.
Conclusion: Hekasoft SiteLocker allows you to add websites automatically to the Windows hosts file so that they can be blocked. It also has a downloadable database of dangerous sites which should be blocked on your PC. If you do not want to manually edit the hosts file, then you can use the Hekasoft SiteLocker in Windows to block websites.
You can download Hekasoft SiteLocker from http://www.hekasoft.com/sitelocker/.