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#16
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can't edit hosts file?
Mayayana wrote:
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote | Thanks, you and Ed. Excellent idea. Then I found my Process Explorer | won't work! I've extracted it again from the .zip file I downloaded (and | yes, it _did_ work then!); I run it, I get the UAC popup, I click Run in | that, and - nothing happens. And there's nothing beginning with P in | Task Manager other than Panorama. Sounds fishy to me. Your software generally works but editing HOSTS and running ProcExp are blocked? I'd suspect some kind of sneaky thing had got onto the system. If it were me I'd first shut off UAC and if that didn't clear things up I'd try downloading some malware/AV products. (Many of them can be downloaded as free packages for emergency use.) The only other thing I can think of would be if you had somehow screwed up file restrictions.... maybe logging on as Guest or some such? But you have a lot of experience. I can't think of anything you might have done accidentally. It's an interesting mystery. I think Kaspersky blocks about half of the Sysinternals programs. As an example. And even without an AV, you can use SRP in the OS, to block particular things. SRP was used to block the first round of Ransomware (before the Ransomware became more sophisticated and borrowed techniques from existing malware). Paul |
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#17
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can't edit hosts file?
On Thu, 5 Apr 2018 22:22:59 +0100, Good Guy
wrote: On 05/04/2018 20:04, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: could be a user rather than a process. Yes it's a user who has very serious demented brain. To edit a host file you need to drag it to your desktop (i.e. move it) and then edit it. after editing it, drag it back to its original location. Voila it works. It wasn't difficult was it, old man? I have always edited it directly in the original location, but since I change it fairly often, I now have a link to it on the desktop, and open it with right-click "Open with notepad." -- Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world. (Anonymous) |
#18
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can't edit hosts file?
Ed Cryer wrote:
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: In message 23, Auric__ writes: Char Jackson wrote: On Thu, 5 Apr 2018 20:04:01 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote: I'm sure I have edited it since moving to W7! But now when I try, I am told it is in use: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." (The process being plain original NotePad.) If I try to delete it (having made a copy of course!), I get "The action can't be completed because the file is open in System". I've just done a restart, and tried again before opening anything I'd have thought would be using it - no change. Though as I said, I'm sure I've edited it before, and that _wouldn't_ have been under those circumstances. What's using it? "System" isn't very informative - could be a user rather than a process. Some AV programs will lock the hosts file to prevent malicious editing. Also, I believe you have to run your editor, Notepad in this case, as Administrator. If you're already aware of those restrictions, then I'm not sure what the deal is. If you have Sysinternals Process Explorer, search for "hosts" (Ctrl+F) and it'll show you what has it open. You can close the handle from the lower main pane (Ctrl+L). (You may need to "Show Details for All Processes".) (Any program with similar capabilities should be able to do this.) Otherwise, try rebooting to safe mode and editing there. Thanks, you and Ed. Excellent idea. Then I found my Process Explorer won't work! I've extracted it again from the .zip file I downloaded (and yes, it _did_ work then!); I run it, I get the UAC popup, I click Run in that, and - nothing happens. And there's nothing beginning with P in Task Manager other than Panorama. Try running it as Administrator. If that doesn't work, look here; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...does-not-start If it's still unfixed after that, then do a comprehensive check of what else is shut out; and then let us know. Ed A useful help in cases like this is to find what file permissions are available. Proxexp.exe Properties, Security tag. Mine has full for System and Administrators; all but that for Authenticated Users. Ed |
#19
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can't edit hosts file?
On Fri, 6 Apr 2018 05:00:06 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__"
wrote: Char Jackson wrote: On Fri, 6 Apr 2018 03:25:29 -0000 (UTC), "Auric__" wrote: Bob_S wrote: Are you sure you have enabled hidden files and that you have the correct HOSTS file (uppercase and no extension). As a general rule, Windows isn't case-sensitive. It shouldn't matter if it's "hosts" or "HOSTS" or even something silly like "HoStS". Agreed, and for the record, the default is lower case for this file. It's lowercase in systems that *are* case-sensitive. Both my Mac and my Linux server have /etc/hosts. I'm not sure why Bob mentioned uppercase. In older systems -- 9x and NT3/4 -- the sample hosts files were uppercase. (HOSTS.SAM) Shrug. On my virgin Windows 98SE VM, it's called "Hosts.sam". Only the first letter is capitalized. ;-) -- Char Jackson |
#20
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can't edit hosts file?
In message , Ed Cryer
writes: [] Thanks, you and Ed. Excellent idea. Then I found my Process Explorer won't work! I've extracted it again from the .zip file I downloaded (and yes, it _did_ work then!); I run it, I get the UAC popup, I click Run in that, and - nothing happens. And there's nothing beginning with P in Task Manager other than Panorama. Try running it as Administrator. It did, thanks! I've just modified the properties of the shortcut to run as administrator, and that works too. [] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Veni Vidi Vacuum [I came, I saw, It sucked] - , 1998 |
#21
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can't edit hosts file?
In message , slate_leeper
writes: On Thu, 5 Apr 2018 22:22:59 +0100, Good Guy wrote: On 05/04/2018 20:04, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: could be a user rather than a process. Yes it's a user who has very serious demented brain. (I think bad guy has a mirror.) To edit a host file you need to drag it to your desktop (i.e. move it) and then edit it. after editing it, drag it back to its original location. Voila it works. It wasn't difficult was it, old man? I have always edited it directly in the original location, but since I change it fairly often, I now have a link to it on the desktop, and open it with right-click "Open with notepad." Me too. Well, I have a shortcut to NotePad+, with hosts as a parameter (i. e. the shortcut's Target line is C:\Windows\Notepad+.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. [and its startup line is %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%, though that's probably not necessary]). That saves the right-click and open with step. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Veni Vidi Vacuum [I came, I saw, It sucked] - , 1998 |
#22
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can't edit hosts file?
In message , Bob_S writes:
[] Also just did a quick search and found this: https://www.devside.net/wamp-server/...ows-hosts-file That sorted it: it was ZoneAlarm that was the culprit! (I'm only using the firewall part of it.) Though why that should cause it to appear to be "System" - PID 4 - that had the hosts file open, I have no idea. For anyone else: just changing the setting in ZA, or turning off ZA altogether, didn't let me edit the hosts file; I had to do a reboot (as the above suggested might be the case). Actually, I changed ZA not to restart before rebooting; I suppose I should have tried just its hosts file setting. (That can wait for next reboot.) -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Veni Vidi Vacuum [I came, I saw, It sucked] - , 1998 |
#23
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can't edit hosts file?
Copy the hosts file onto a USB stick. Edit it and then copy the edited
version back. I have partitions on my harddrive I can copy the hosts file to and edit it so that is another way. -- Bill Brought to you from Anchorage, Alaska J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: I'm sure I have edited it since moving to W7! But now when I try, I am told it is in use: "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process." (The process being plain original NotePad.) If I try to delete it (having made a copy of course!), I get "The action can't be completed because the file is open in System". I've just done a restart, and tried again before opening anything I'd have thought would be using it - no change. Though as I said, I'm sure I've edited it before, and that _wouldn't_ have been under those circumstances. What's using it? "System" isn't very informative - could be a user rather than a process. |
#24
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can't edit hosts file?
In message , Bill Bradshaw
writes: Copy the hosts file onto a USB stick. Edit it and then copy the edited version back. I have partitions on my harddrive I can copy the hosts file to and edit it so that is another way. It wasn't the editing, it was the copying back - either as a save from NotePad, or a copy from the edited copy somewhere else. The system wouldn't let me overwrite the existing file while it was "open in System". ZoneAlarm appears to have been the culprit; rebooting with that off seems to have made the system happy. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "That was a great speech. Every thinking American will vote for you." "That's not enough. I need a majority." - Mo Udall |
#25
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can't edit hosts file?
you need to run event viewer, and follow the time stamp and event id
while running resource monitor. That is the only way you can track a host file to the app that is running it. Without the event viewer id number, you will never find. Unless your real good with time stamp. Watch the associated handles and the id numbers in those handles. If you want to know what it is for certain. Make sure you check host in processes section or it will not show its face in associated handles. There is an app you can get that follows svc host files easier, but as in you already have the stuff in windows, its just learning how to use it to track the host with. The services are annoying as most of them, are scams by ms. No such thing as freedom. Not in commy microsoft ****. Which is why we use pc tools firewall. It does not hide anything important as in the commys firewall of MS. On 4/6/2018 10:42 AM, J. P. Gilliver (John) scribbled: In message , Bill Bradshaw writes: Copy the hosts file onto a USB stick. Edit it and then copy the edited version back. I have partitions on my harddrive I can copy the hosts file to and edit it so that is another way. It wasn't the editing, it was the copying back - either as a save from NotePad, or a copy from the edited copy somewhere else. The system wouldn't let me overwrite the existing file while it was "open in System". ZoneAlarm appears to have been the culprit; rebooting with that off seems to have made the system happy. |
#26
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can't edit hosts file?
I seem to remember I have also been able to boot into safe mode and edit it.
Bill J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: In message , Bill Bradshaw writes: Copy the hosts file onto a USB stick. Edit it and then copy the edited version back. I have partitions on my harddrive I can copy the hosts file to and edit it so that is another way. It wasn't the editing, it was the copying back - either as a save from NotePad, or a copy from the edited copy somewhere else. The system wouldn't let me overwrite the existing file while it was "open in System". ZoneAlarm appears to have been the culprit; rebooting with that off seems to have made the system happy. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "That was a great speech. Every thinking American will vote for you." "That's not enough. I need a majority." - Mo Udall |
#27
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can't edit hosts file?
"tesla sTinker" wrote
| Which is why we use pc tools firewall. It does not hide | anything important as in the commys firewall of MS. | | You use PC Tools firewall on Win7? I have v. 7 of that but never got around to trying it. I'm curious what you like about it and how you'd compare it to other options. I gave up on ZA many years ago, when they started letting MS call home by default on XP. (Before that I used AtGuard, which was my all-time favorite, but they sold it to Symantec, who of course ruined it and doubled the price. Symantec set over 700 programs to be let through their firewall by default. The result was a useless product that got great reviews for its "ease of use". On XP I use Online Armor, which I find to be about as good as I can expect, inasmuch as it warns me if anything tries to go out and it allows me to make rules fairly easily to block a process, or restrict a process to specific ports. But they also sold out. I using v. 4.0.0.15 and I understand that it was completely changed after that. So I'm happy with my XP firewall but would be curious about a better firewall on Win7 than Private Firewall. In the meantime, I think we'll have to tease John about not noticing that ZA was blocking him from editing HOSTS. Though, in his defense, I see that as one of the big problems with a lot of software these days. AV wants to be firewall and computer health software. Firewalls want to be AV and email filters. Both of them want to monitor downloads and control programs. It's hard to find software that just does the job well and gets out of the way. Online Armor actually has a lot of that crap, but I disable all except the firewall itself. Many AV/Firewall programs won't allow normal online operation with default settings, blocking just about everything except known software. One of them, Trendmicro, actually tracks people online. I know that because I see it in my website server logs. Someone downloads a ZIP from my site and immediately, in less than a minute, Trendmicro downloads the same ZIP from their site in Japan. I wonder if people realize how intrusive all this "safety" is. |
#28
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can't edit hosts file?
version 7 is a clean firewall that permits everything.
And that, is why I use it. However, the whole pc tools stopped, and their links were taken over by symantec. has network meter, has options for all ports and channels, logs everything. Together with wireshark, it is a non folly machine. Symantec Which is a virus company that is not worth a dam. They have all stopped doing things honestly, and for that reason, we do not upgrade anything. Unless it does not work right. Version 7 works.... The others, and we have Private Firewall as well, are just not up to par. You may be able to get a copy on oldversion.com, if your lucky. On 4/8/2018 11:05 AM, Mayayana scribbled: "tesla wrote | Which is why we use pc tools firewall. It does not hide | anything important as in the commys firewall of MS. | | You use PC Tools firewall on Win7? I have v. 7 of that but never got around to trying it. I'm curious what you like about it and how you'd compare it to other options. I gave up on ZA many years ago, when they started letting MS call home by default on XP. (Before that I used AtGuard, which was my all-time favorite, but they sold it to Symantec, who of course ruined it and doubled the price. Symantec set over 700 programs to be let through their firewall by default. The result was a useless product that got great reviews for its "ease of use". On XP I use Online Armor, which I find to be about as good as I can expect, inasmuch as it warns me if anything tries to go out and it allows me to make rules fairly easily to block a process, or restrict a process to specific ports. But they also sold out. I using v. 4.0.0.15 and I understand that it was completely changed after that. So I'm happy with my XP firewall but would be curious about a better firewall on Win7 than Private Firewall. In the meantime, I think we'll have to tease John about not noticing that ZA was blocking him from editing HOSTS. Though, in his defense, I see that as one of the big problems with a lot of software these days. AV wants to be firewall and computer health software. Firewalls want to be AV and email filters. Both of them want to monitor downloads and control programs. It's hard to find software that just does the job well and gets out of the way. Online Armor actually has a lot of that crap, but I disable all except the firewall itself. Many AV/Firewall programs won't allow normal online operation with default settings, blocking just about everything except known software. One of them, Trendmicro, actually tracks people online. I know that because I see it in my website server logs. Someone downloads a ZIP from my site and immediately, in less than a minute, Trendmicro downloads the same ZIP from their site in Japan. I wonder if people realize how intrusive all this "safety" is. |
#29
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can't edit hosts file?
On 08/04/2018 20:29, tesla sTinker wrote:
Symantec Which is a virus company that is not worth a dam. You must be brain damaged or that you are too poor to buy a decent Anti-Virus subscription. symantec is one of the best around but poor people like you can't afford it. In order to buy it the user must have some intelligence to earn a better living and so afford to buy a premium product. For poor people like you, there are free ones like Avast, & AVG. Why nutters like you are still using a Windows system is beyond my imagination. Windows is for people with education and riff-raff like you should be using Linux Junk. -- With over 600 million devices now running Windows 10, customer satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows. |
#30
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can't edit hosts file?
"tesla sTinker" wrote
| Version 7 works.... The others, and we have Private Firewall as well, | are just not up to par. | | You may be able to get a copy on oldversion.com, if your lucky. Thanks. I'll try it. As I mentioned, I have v. 7 already. I just never tried installing it. I've seen enough things disappear from the Internet that long ago I started storing backups of things I might want later. That includes a number of firewalls. |
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