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. Translated description (from russian) 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

Download

https://code.google.com/p/hostscmd/downloads/list