This will help avoid some annoyance with Windows Vista and Windows 7 Windows 8 Windows 9 Windows 10 Windows 11...
The host file is the one where one enters hostname and IP Address pair manually as against being served by a Name server (ex: DNS).
As always the “host” file is under these locations and cannot be edited by normal users.
C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc
%systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc
To edit the host file, Click Start – search for “Notepad“, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“. This should launch notepad with elevated privileges. Now, open the host file from the File menu, edit and save.
Apple Mac OS X
To find the hosts file, open Finder and, in Finder’s menu bar, select Go > Go to Folder. In the box, type the following location and press Return.
/private/etc/hosts