Windows 10: How frequently does Windows read the hosts file?

Hello all,


I'm adding an extensive list of IPs to our work-from-home staffs' Windows hosts file. How frequently does Windows read the hosts file? Meaning, when I make changes to the hosts file, when will Windows read the file to get the new DNS entries?


History: Our work-from-home users occasionally have trouble accessing network resources. We have discovered at certain times the user's ISP DNS servers take priority over our VPN DNS profile and cannot resolve our internal IPs. I'm trying to prevent this by adding our internal domain resources to the Windows hosts file in order to force DNS to our domain over their ISP DNS.


Any feedback, suggestions or alternative methods are welcome. Thank you, Lewis.

:)

 

Hosts file editing

I have to jump in and say I use, and have used the host file for years. It's an easy way to take stress off of old name servers. I don't add everything, but major shares I do add to the host file. I've used the host file for some tunneling as well. I try to optimize my network as much as possible and I have a solid network. But Easy Rhino is right as well, you'll want to have everything he suggested as well. *Toast :toast:

 

Windows 10 Tweaks

Pressing “Windows+Pause Break” (it’s up there next to scroll lock) opens the “System” Window.

Windows 10: In the new version of Windows, Explorer has a section called Quick Access. This includes your frequent folders and recent files. Explorer defaults to opening this page when you open a new window. If you’d rather open the usual This PC, with links to your drives and library folders, follow these steps:

• Open a new Explorer window.
• Click View in the ribbon.
• Click Options.
• Under General, next to “Open File Explorer to:” choose “This PC.”
• Click OK

credit to Lifehacker.

 

Editing the hosts file in Windows 7

I recently just upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Edition and I need to edit the hosts file located in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\. I've done this before on XP and Vista Ultimate 64-bit by opening the hosts file with Notepad. Only this time, when I opened it up with Notepad on Windows 7, it looked like this:

Code: # Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp. # # This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. # # This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each # entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should # be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. # The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one # space. # # Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual # lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. # # For example: # # 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server # 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself. # 127.0.0.1 localhost # ::1 localhost[/quote] Where as on XP and Vista, it would look like this:

Code: Copyright (c) 1993-2008 Microsoft Corp. This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows. This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name. The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one space. Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol. For example: 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself. 127.0.0.1 localhost ::1 localhost[/quote] So if I were to insert a line into the hosts file in Windows 7, would I have to add the # before the line or can I just simply put the line in without adding the # before it?