winxp HOSTS file question

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bob

winxp pro sp3, 64bit,

I have added entries to hosts file to block some sites.
Now I am unable to boot with original hosts files.

I copy the contents of the original hosts file back to hosts, so hosts file
is back to original content.
I reboot and when I chk the hosts file, it contains all the entires that I
have added.

Does anyone know what windows xp is doing ? And why xp is coping my
modified hosts file and using it?

How do I stop xp from doing this and using the original hosts file
contents?

Thanks
 
bob said:
winxp pro sp3, 64bit,

I have added entries to hosts file to block some sites.
Now I am unable to boot with original hosts files.

I copy the contents of the original hosts file back to hosts, so hosts file
is back to original content.
I reboot and when I chk the hosts file, it contains all the entires that I
have added.

Does anyone know what windows xp is doing ? And why xp is coping my
modified hosts file and using it?

How do I stop xp from doing this and using the original hosts file
contents?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Looks more like you installed some security software that protects the
hosts file. You or anything else that makes changes to the file will
get discarded when the protected copy is reinstated. There are many
security products that protect the hosts file. Only you as yet know
what you have installed on your host.

Try making your changes to the hosts file. Reboot into Windows safe
mode. Many security programs do not load are are disabled in safe mode
(but not all). Then check if the hosts file retained your changes or
got reverted to the "safe" copy.

What happens if you move the hosts file (so it looks deleted under its
original folder) and reboot into normal mode? Does the host file
magically reappear? If so, you've got a startup program that is
reinstating a protected copy of the file. It's also possible that a
policy or login script is doing that if you were logging into a domain
but you never mentioned that. Then there are products that will discard
all changes made to your computer because all of them went to a virtual
hard disk that is discarded (and created anew) on every reboot, like
Returnil or MS Steadystate.
 
Thanks for Reply.

I do not have anything installed that would do this.
I am running Symantec AntiVirus v 10.1, Virtual CloneDrive.

Not running any other programs.

Thanks.
 
Just create a new one in a text file and put this in it:

127.0.0.1 localhost

Then save the file as: hosts (make sure there is no file extension of
any type in this.)

When this works, i.e. you can boot the machine, then you can make
further entries to block your other sites.

The default hosts file has nothing in it except all the entries are
commented out ################.

Go and visit my site for further info and DW extensions.

Good luck.
 
bob said:
I do not have anything installed that would do this.
I am running Symantec AntiVirus v 10.1, Virtual CloneDrive.

Not running any other programs.
Click to expand...

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH101546

It is unclear what "repair" means in their scope of product description.
It could be equivalent to a "hosts lock" feature: changes made while the
lock option is enabled are discarded. You have to disable this lock
feature to make changes to the hosts file and then reenable this lock
feature to prevent other users or [malicious] processes from making
later changes.

Have you tried changing privileges on the file (to block whatever is
reverting it back to a prior state)? If you're logging on under an
admin-level account, change write permissions on the file to remove the
Administrators group and just allow the Administrator account to have
write privilege to this file. Presumably you are never logging on under
the Administrator account except in case of emergency and instead using
a different account that might be in the Administrators group. With the
Administrators group removed from the files privileges and with only the
Administrator account having write privileges on the file, nothing
running on your normal account will be able to write to the file. They
can still delete the file but they won't be able to open in write mode
to make modifications. If whatever is replacing the file (overwriting
with a saved "safe" copy) then change privileges on the hosts file to
remove the Create Files/Write Data and Delete privileges (advanced
setup) from the Administrators group (and all other groups and accounts)
except for the Administrator account. Then all accounts can read the
hosts file but only the Administrator account can make changes. To make
your own changes to the hosts file, you'll have to logon under the
Administrator account to delete, edit, or overwrite the hosts file.

To understand the privileges (permissions) on a file/folder, use Start
-> Help and Support to search on "permissions for files and folders".

I've seen some users claim that setting the read-only attribute on the
hosts file will lock it ("attrib.exe +r hosts"). Wrong. That just
means the normal access method for write mode will fail but any program
can change the file attributes (i.e., if you can do it then so can
software) plus it doesn't block overwriting the file with a different
copy or deleting the file.

Rather than go through all that regarding privileges on a file/folder, I
just use WinPatrol (free version with all monitors reduced to 1-minute
poll intervals) and enable its hosts file alert. You should make a
backup copy of your modified hosts file to let you replace your copy
should the hosts file get deleted or modified but not by you. I use the
Hosts Safe archive backup feature in SpywareBlaster (non-resident free
version) to keep old copies of different versions of the hosts file.

I notice in your original post that you mention using Windows XP Pro
64-bit version (that's a crippled version of Windows 2003 Server with
the XP desktop). Yet you also mention SP-3 which is not available for
the Windows 2003 Server (Windows XP Pro 64-bit) version. SP-2 was the
last service pack level for that OS. So just which OS do you really
have? Just WHERE are you editing a hosts file? It's in a different
path on 64-bit versions; see:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972034/en-us
 
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