Q. Why you would wanna do this?

A. By adding the list of known sites to your HOSTS file, any browser you use, outside of IE (including IE itself) will block Spyware cookies from making their way into your PC. In other words, it will make this procedure GLOBAL, leaving windows and your network card to take care of it. This is especially useful for AOL users which use an internal form of IE browser, and integration of the .reg file is not possible.

Q. How to do it?

A. Well, follow the list of the few steps it takes, but be careful, messing up the HOSTS file can cause problems and many internet related issues. Be very cautious of where the cursor is before you copy/paste.


Step 1:
Click above to view the HOSTS file via Notepad (or click HERE). A huge list should open with many websites listed. You will need to highlight them all, and do a copy by right clicking and "copy" or keyboard shortcut (ctrl + c).

Step 2:
You must enable hidden files. Open Windows Explorer (Right click "My Computer" and choose explore) or use Windows Keyboard shortcut (Window Key + e). Click Tools Menu, and select "Folder Options" to get a new window. Click the "View" tab. Scroll (if needed) down the Advanced settings list until you see a radio button for "Show hidden files" and make sure it is circled in, if not, click it to make it circled in. Click "Apply" button and then "OK" button.

Step 3:
Navigate to the following path in Windows Explorer:
C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc

You will typically see 5 files here, with no extension association to them, double click the file that reads "hosts" and choose notepad to open this type of file.

The last entry in the list is very commonly:
127.0.0.1 localhost

click the cursor at the end of this line and hit the enter key 3 times or so, leaving some extra space. Now we are ready to do a paste (right click "paste") or Keyboard shortcut (ctrl + v).

The entire list should now be in your HOSTS file, click "file" then choose save and close notepad.


Thats all there is to it. Now whenever you need to add something to the HOSTS file, you can just add it to the bottom of that list, following the format seen by all the listings I have as an example.

All of these steps take use of basic Windows Skills and therefore I felt screenshots were uneccessary atm... if you have trouble doing this, feel free to post here for help.

Enjoy....