Не дает редактировать hosts windows 10

by Milan Stanojevic

Milan has been enthusiastic about technology ever since his childhood days, and this led him to take interest in all PC-related technologies. He’s a PC enthusiast and he… read more

Updated on October 4, 2023

Sometimes in order to fix a certain problem or to block a certain website on your Windows 10 PC, you have to edit the hosts file.

Editing hosts file is a relatively advanced procedure, and a number of users reported “Access denied” message while trying to edit the hosts file on Windows 10.

The hosts file is located in your Windows 10 installation directory, and it’s protected from unauthorized access, but if you need to edit the hosts file, you can avoid “Access denied” message by following one of our solutions.

Here are some more examples of this problem:

• Can’t edit hosts file Windows 10 – If you can’t edit the hosts file in Windows 10, it’s probably because you don’t have required permissions. We’ll explore that problem here
• Hosts file being used by another process  – This is another common issue that prevents users from editing the host file.
• Don’t have permission to save hosts file Windows 10 – This is the same case as the first error message.

Table of contents:

1. Run Notepad as administrator
2. Copy the hosts file to a different location
3. Make sure hosts isn’t set to Read-only
4. Change the security settings for hosts
5. Use the hidden administrator account

How to edit the hosts file on Windows 10 and avoid Access denied message?

1. Run Notepad as administrator

1. Press Windows Key + S, enter Notepad. Right-click Notepad from the list of results and choose Run as administrator.
   
2. Once Notepad opens, choose File > Open.
3. Navigate to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc folder and make sure to change Text Documents (*.txt) to All Files. Select hosts and click Open.
   
4. Make the changes you want and save them.

If you use Notepad as your text editor, you need to run it as administrator before you can edit the hosts file. To run Notepad as administrator and to edit the hosts file, do the following:

We have to mention that this solution should work with any other text editor, so if you don’t use Notepad, just run your desired text editor as administrator and you should be able to edit hosts file without any problems.

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Looking for some Notepad alternatives? Here are the 6 best text editors available right now.

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Alternatively, you can start Command Prompt as administrator and use it to start Notepad and edit the hosts file. To do that, follow these instructions:

1. Press Windows Key + X and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
   
2. Once the Command Prompt opens, enter the following lines and press Enter after each line:
   • cd C:WindowsSystem32driversetc
   • notepad hosts
     
3. Notepad will now open the hosts file, and you should be able to make the necessary changes.

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If you’re having trouble accessing Command Prompt as an admin, then you better take a closer look on this guide.

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2. Copy the hosts file to a different location

1. Go to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc and locate hosts file.
2. Copy it to your Desktop, or any other folder that you can easily access.
3. Open the hosts file on your Desktop with Notepad or any other text editor.
4. Make the necessary changes and move the hosts file back to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc directory.

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Edit your hosts file easily by following this step-by-step guide.

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3. Make sure hosts isn’t set to Read-only

1. Go to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc.
2. Locate the hosts file, right-click it and choose Properties from the menu.
3. Go to the Attributes section and make sure the Read-only option isn’t checked.
   
4. Click Apply and OK to save changes.

Now you should be able to make the necessary changes to the hosts file. After you’re finished, it might be a good idea to set hosts file back to Read-only mode again.

Sometimes, all your documents are read-only, including your hosts file. If you want to change them properly, you can find more info about that in this quick guide.

4. Change the security settings for hosts

1. Navigate to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc.
2. Locate hosts file, right-click it and choose Properties.
3. Navigate to the Security tab and click the Edit button.
   
4. You should see the list of users and groups on your PC that have access to the hosts file. If your user name or group is on the list, click it and make sure that it has Permissions set to Full control. If your user name isn’t on the list, click the Add button.
5. Enter the user name or the group name in the Enter the object names to select the field and click Check Names and OK.
   
6. A new user or group will be added to the list. Now you need to select the newly added group or user and check the Full control option below.
7. Click Apply and OK to save changes.

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5. Use the hidden administrator account

1. Press Windows Key + X and choose Command Prompt (Admin).
2. When Command Prompt opens, enter net user administrator /active:yes and press Enter. This will activate the hidden administrator account.
   
3. After you have activated the administrator account, you can switch to it, and try editing the hosts file.

Most system files are protected, therefore you need an administrator account in order to make changes to them. Since hosts are one of the system files, it requires an administrator account in order to edit it.

If you don’t use an administrator account, you can enable a hidden administrator account and use it to make the changes to the hosts file.

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Learn everything there is to know about the administrator account and how you can enable/disable it right here!

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After you made the changes to the hosts file, you can come back to your original account, start Command Prompt as administrator again and enter net user administrator /active:no to disable the hidden administrator account.

The hosts file is a system file, so it’s protected, and usually, it’s not advised that you edit it, but if you decide to do so, it’s always good to know how to reset hosts file to default in Windows 10 in case anything goes wrong.

If you have any more questions, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

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What is a hosts file in Windows 10?

A ‘hosts’ file is a plain text file, which maps hostnames to IP addresses. A host file helps in addressing network nodes in a computer network. A hostname is a human-friendly name or label assigned to a device (a host) on a network and is used to distinguish one device from another on a specific network or over the internet.

If you have been a tech-savvy person, you would be able to access and modify the Windows hosts file to solve certain issues or block any websites on your device. The hosts file is located at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts on your computer. Since it is a plain text file, it can be opened and edited in notepad. But Sometimes you may encounter ‘Access Denied’ error while opening hosts file. How will you edit the host file? This error will not let you open or edit the hosts file on your computer. In this article, we will discuss various methods to solve Can’t edit the hosts file on Windows 10 issue.

Editing a hosts file is possible and you might need to do it for a variety of reasons.

• You can create website shortcuts by adding a required entry in the hosts file that maps the website IP address to a hostname of your own choice.
• You can block any website or ads by mapping their hostname to the IP address of your own computer which is 127.0.0.1, also called loopback IP address.

Make sure to create a restore point just in case something goes wrong.

Why can’t I edit the hosts file, even as Administrator?

Even if you try to open the file as an Administrator or use the built-in Administrator account to modify or edit the hosts file, you are still unable to make any changes to the file itself. The reason being that the access or permission required to make any changes to the hosts file are controlled by TrustedInstaller or SYSTEM.

Method 1 – Open Notepad with Administrator Access

Most of the people use notepad as a text editor on Windows 10. Therefore, before you edit the host file, you need to run Notepad as Administrator on your device.

1. Press Windows Key + S to bring up the Windows Search box.

2. Type notepad and in the search results, you will see a shortcut for Notepad.

3. Right-click on Notepad and select ‘Run as administrator’ from the context menu.

4. A prompt will appear. Select Yes to continue.

5. Notepad window will appear. Select File option from the Menu and then click on ‘Open‘.

6. To open the hosts file, browse to C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc.

7. If you can’t see the hosts file in this folder, select ‘All Files’ in the option below.

8. Select the hosts file and then click on Open.

9. You can now see the contents of the hosts file.

10. Modify or make the required changes in the hosts file.

11. From Notepad menu go to File > Save or press Ctrl+S to save the changes.

It is important to note that this method works with all text editor programs. Therefore, if you use another text editor program apart from notepad, you just need to open your program with Administrator access.

Alternative Method:

Alternatively, you can open the notepad with admin access and edit the files using the Command Prompt.

1.Open the command prompt with admin access. Type CMD in Windows search bar then right-click on Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.

2.Once the elevated command prompt opens, you need to execute the below-given command

cd C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
notepad hosts

3.The command will open the editable host file. Now you can make the changes to the hosts file on Windows 10.

Method 2 – Disable Read-only for the hosts file

By default, the hosts file is set to open but you cannot make any changes i.e. it is set to read-only. In order to fix Access denied when editing hosts file error in Windows 10, you need to disable the read-only feature.

1.Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

2.Here you need to locate the hosts file, right-click on it and choose Properties.

3.In the attribute section, uncheck the Read-only box.

4.Click Apply followed by OK to save the settings

Now you can try to open and edit the hosts file. Probably, the problem of access denied will be solved.

Method 3 – Change the Security settings for the hosts file

Sometimes getting access to these files requires special privileges. It could be one reason that you may not be given full access, therefore, you are getting access denied error while opening hosts file.

1.Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

2.Here you need to locate the hosts file, right-click on the file and choose Properties.

3.Click on the Security tab and click on the Edit button.

4.Here you will find a list of users and groups. You need to ensure that your user name has full access and control. If your name is not added in the list, you can click on the Add button.

5.Select the user account via the Advanced button or just type your user account in the area which says ‘Enter the object name to select’ and click OK. 

6.If in the previous step you have clicked on the Advanced button then click on “Find now” button.

7.Finally, click OK and checkmark “Full Control”.

8.Click Apply followed by OK to save changes.

Hopefully, now you will be able to access and edit the hosts file without any issues.

Method 4 – Change the hosts file location

Some users noted that changing the file location has solved their problem. You can change the location and edit the file thereafter put the file back to its original location.

1.Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

2.Locate the Hosts file and copy it.

3.Paste the copied file on your Desktop where you can easily access that file.

4.Open the hosts file on your Desktop with Notepad or another text editor with Admin access.

5.Make the necessary changes on that file and save changes.

6.Finally, copy & paste the hosts file back to its original location:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc.

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That’s if you have successfully Fix Access denied when editing hosts file in Windows 10 but if you still have any queries regarding this article then please feel free to ask them in the comment’s section.