Comments on: Edit your hosts file to test your website before it goes live

By: Dirty PC User

Dirty PC User — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:16:02 +0000

Thanks guys, It was actually useful. Have to use windows at work. Otherwise its linux!!

By: Ryan Taylor

Ryan Taylor — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:53:46 +0000

Thanks for the details guys. I’m sure some dirty PC user will find it useful! :-P

By: Jim Moran

Jim Moran — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 23:02:55 +0000

If you’re a PC user, then it’s a similar procedure.

The hosts file is usually located at:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

Simply open that in notepad and add the same entries as described by Ryan. You may need to restart your browser (not the computer) after you’ve made the changes.

By: Shaun Hare

Shaun Hare — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:27:14 +0000

Yes a trick I use a lot too Ryan, although I am a MAC man too for windows users the file is located in

C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc and the same applies, on my windows machine I just drop a shortcut on the desktop to edit the file in notepad.exe

e.g. start notepad.exe C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Another tip to remember is make sure after a change you quit any open browsers before you try and test as otherwise sometimes the desired location is not picked up

By: Mark Stickley

Mark Stickley — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:02:35 +0000

Great post, thanks!

The host file on Windows machines is located at c:\[windows directory]\drivers\system32\etc\hosts

I’m a Mac man as well but if you’re like me and try to avoid Vi or Vim at all costs you might well be a TextMate user. If you are instead of typing:

sudo vim /etc/hosts

you can just type:

mate /etc/hosts

That’ll open a new TextMate window and prompt you for your system password in a nice friendly OS X dialogue box :)