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Jon
Asked: 2010-05-28 20:12:01 +0800 CST

Windows Hosts File Location

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I've got a general query regarding the location of the hosts file on Windows. It resides at this location:

f:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

My question is why? Could Microsoft have picked a more obscure location for a hosts file?

windows hosts

4 Answers

  1. Well, I'm not a microsoft insider, but here is my logic:

    %WINDIR% - All windows files are here
    system32 - these are for 32 bit system binaries
    drivers - well ... drivers
    etc\hosts - you need to understand that the Windows TCP/IP stack is an implementation of the BSD TCP/IP stack, in *nix systems the host file is at /etc/hosts

    This is my best guess as to why it was put there.

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  2. If you don't like that location you could always change it by going to regedit and modifying this value: \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\DataBasePath

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  3. My guess is that it's a system file, so that's why it is at that location.

    For what it's worth, you can create a shortcut to the file, the shortcut being in a more convenient location. As an example, when I use Apache on my Windows desktop, I'm wanting to add virtual hosts, which requires modifying the hosts file so they can be accessed. So I have a shortcut to the hosts file located in my Apache config folder.

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  4. Yes, they could have.

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