How to edit HOSTS-file in Windows

Windows:

1. Navigate to your Windows folder, usually located on C:\

2. Now go into the subfolder system32, then to drivers and to etc By default, you cannot see these hidden folders since they are system folders. So you maybe need to enable "Show hidden files, folders, or drives" first. Here's how to: Windows XP: Click "Start → Search". In the Search Results window, scroll down and click "More advanced options". Check the boxes, "Search system folders", "Search hidden files and folders" and "Search subfolders". Windows Vista: (Previous to SP1) From the Windows Start menu, click "Search". In the "Advanced Search" area, select "Include non-indexed, hidden, and system files (might be slow)" In Windows Vista SP1 or later, follow the instructions below for Windows 7, which should be similar. Windows 7: First make sure you have Windows set to show hidden files and folders ("Start -> Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View -> Show hidden files, folders, or drives -> OK"). To search for files or folders in hidden locations, click "Start -> Computer" and, in the window that opens, enter the name of the file or folder in the Search Computer box.

3. You should see a file called hosts here

4. Now you'll need to open Notepad with administrator privileges, e.g. by rightclicking the notepad shortcut and select "Run as Administrator".

5. In notepad, click on "File", "Open" and navigate to the folder where the HOSTS file is stored (e.g. C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc) You'll need to select "All files (*.*)" instead of "Text documents (*.txt)" in the bottom right of this window. Otherwise you won't see the hosts file.

6. Go to the end of the file and then add this line if you have a GMail account: 74.125.157.109 smtp.gmail.com this line if you have a Windows Live/Hotmail account: 65.55.162.200 smtp.live.com and this line if you have a Yahoo email account: 76.13.13.48 plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com Alternative IPs that you should try to use instead of the IPs from above, in case you are still unable to send emails, are: 209.85.227.109, 74.125.91.109, 74.125.39.16, 74.125.93.109 <- GMail 65.55.172.254 <- Windows Live/Hotmail

7. Save the file, then you can close the notepad. Should you be unable to save the file, that means that your hosts file is protected by your antivirus or some antispyware applications. You can just deactivate this software before saving, and reactivating it after saving. In case your hosts file is just set to read-only, you can change that as shown in the image on the right. Rightclick the hosts file, select "Properties", then this window appears. Uncheck "Read-only", then click "OK". Usually it should work right out of the box, but in some cases you need to restart your email software.