Hosts File Editor is an open-source software for managing and editing Hosts file on a Windows system. It is portable and works out of the box. Using this small tool we can view all the entries in the hosts file, add new entries, disable or delete existing entries as well as import new entries from other hosts files. It is a great tool for importing entries from the freely available hosts files on the internet such as the MVPS hosts file.
As soon as we launch the Hosts File Editor, it reads the hosts file located in the system folder. The entries are displayed with all the necessary details – the IP address, hosts name and the comment next to it. In front of all the entries there is a checkbox – if this checkbox is empty, the entry has been commented and is disabled, if the checkbox is selected, that entry is enabled. You can use these checkboxes to enable or disable any of these entries as you choose. Similarly, we can delete any of these entries by right-clicking on them and choose Delete.
Adding new entries is also very easy. For adding a new entry, you can right-click on any of the existing entries and choose Insert Above or Insert Below. This will add a new row in which all the fields are empty – you ca enter the IP address, the domain and optionally a comment for these new entries. You have to click on the Save button on the toolbar to finalize the changes.
If you are not able to open a website because the hosts file could be blocking it, then you have to temporarily disable the hosts file. Using the Hosts File Editor, we can disable the hosts easily. We can do this simply by right-clicking on the system tray icon of the Hosts File Editor and choosing Disable Hosts File.
Hosts File Editor is also great for merging ready-made hosts files. For example, we can download the most popular ready-to-use hosts file – MVPS hosts file from https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm. The downloaded hosts file can then be imported using Hosts File Editor which will automatically merge the entries into your hosts file.
You can download Hosts File Editor from https://hostsfileeditor.com/ or https://github.com/scottlerch/HostsFileEditor.