Do not have access to hosts file

[envz28]

Hi all,

I've been trying to battle a little problem for quite some time now.

My hosts file has been encrypted with some different IP addresses which inevitably redirect me to some websites.

I have tried to open my hosts file through notepad as administrator, then take out the bad IP addresses and when I try to save I get access denied.

The hosts file itself is set to read only and I do not have "access" to change it.

My user account is the sole account on this PC and is infact the administrator.

tldr:

-Note pad administrator won't work with changing hosts file
-hosts file won't let me change securities parameters

I'm begging for help! I've spent several hours trying to find a guide and every single one says to use Notepad in administrator but that just isn't working for me

Edit-All these attempts have been in safemode with networking

 

[Influx]

Have you run Notepad as Administrator?

 

[yowanvista]

Use the MS Fixit tool to resolve the issue
How can I reset the Hosts file back to the default?

 

[envz28]

Influx~ I said several times that I ran notepad as administrator

Yowanvista~

I tried running the tool and that did not solve the problem. The hosts file is still set to read only and I do not have access to change it.

I tried the manual method and it won't let me save the original file as hosts.old

Nor when i right click within the etc file does new give me an option to make a text document.

I'm open to more ideas!

 

[Influx]

Influx~ I said several times that I ran notepad as administrator

Follow the complete instructions here on taking ownership with a file/folder. Windows 7 Take Ownership & Grant Permissions to Access Files & Folder

 

[Dwarf]

The following lines of code have been posted numerous times, but it is a useful batch file to have in your tool kit. It flushes the DNS cache and resets Microsoft's Host File.

@Echo on
pushd\windows\system32\drivers\etc
attrib -h -s -r hosts
echo 127.0.0.1 localhost>HOSTS
attrib +r +h +s hosts
popd
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset all
netsh int ip reset all
shutdown -r -t 1
del %0

Copy and paste the above in to Notepad and save it as Flush.bat to the desktop. Close all running applications and then right-click on the file and choose to run as an administrator, providing the necessary credentials when prompted. Your computer will automatically restart itself.

 

[envz28]

Dwarf~ I did your steps, not 100% what the object of that was. However it still did not fix the problem. From reading that command it looked like a reset of the hosts file but yeah still didn't work

Influx~ I am following the steps but am stuck at a part in which I tried way before hand and it still will not work

*On step 5 in "How to Grant Permission in Windows 7"

When trying to change the permission settings to Full Control I am unable to check the box.

UPDATE:

*my etc folder had the owner set to TrustedInstaller. I then changed the owner of the file to Ben *i.e. my account*

I was then allowed to check the "Full Control" setting, however when I tried to apply the change I was given:

Error Applying Security

An error occured while applying security information to:

C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\protocol

Access is denied

More help needed!

*Side note, this sucks lol*

 

[envz28]

So i got the bright idea to go to the root:

I went to my C: and right clicked and changed the security level there to allow me Full Access and I did this to every file up to etc. I successfully was able to change the hosts file to allow me Full Control.

As of right now my hosts file is clear of all those pesky advertising IP addresses.

I appreciate all your help. Your suggestions sort of led me onto the track. I will update if things go haywire

Thanks so much!

Env