Windows 10: Unable to edit Hosts file, UAC Off

Hello, I am unable to edit root/system32/drivers/etc/hosts, even with UAC set to "Never Notify". I get access denied errors of different flavors when I attempt to make a new hosts file and replace it, attempt to edit the original and save over... none of my shenanigans appear to work.

I am the only account (administrator) on this Windows 10 Pro installation.

What is the deal here, am I missing something?

:)

 

Unable to edit Hosts file

Thanks Robert.

I'll try and see if that points to a culprit.

I tried safe mode as well. That got the same msg.

 

Unable to edit Hosts file

In my case that didn't work. I got the same error. If I remember well, system was using hosts.

I don't know, but maybe my firewall (zone alarm) may be blocking it.

 

Welcome to the forum,

Have you tried running notepad as admin?





Then navigating to the hosts file,





Edit away...

 

Have you tried doing it with UAC on, set to its default setting?

 

Unlike in Windows 7 the Windows 10 GUI method does not fully disable UAC or grant you full time Admin rights. There is a registry setting that will do this but it's use is not recommended. You would find that many things will not work in this mode and security would be compromised. I will not go into that.

The supported way to edit the hosts file is to run notepad as administrator.

 

Run as administrator? But I am the administrator. I have to do an extra click for no reason every time I want to run something?

Makes no sense.

It works, although I'll have to manually browse to a file every time? Is there no way to run as admin from the right click open with context menu?

Windows XP had full time admin rights (for an "administrator" account, go figure! revolutionary!) , which I ran for nearly 15 years with no issues, no UAC nonsense. What "many things" will not work?

 

The purpose of UAC is to enhance security.

In XP and older an Admin account had full rights all the time. That was convenient, but not very secure.
The problem is that by default all programs you run have the same rights and priveleges you do. If that program happens to be malicious (and this is very hard to prevent) you have a problem. It will be able to do pretty much anything it wants. That is bad. When XP was released in 2001 that was an acceptable risk. In 2016 it is not.

Starting with Vista an Admin account has by default only the rights of a standard user. When running that malicious program it will have only the rights of a standard user and be limited in what it can do. That is good. By using UAC such an account can temporarily be given the full admin rights.

Long standing best practice is to run with only the minimum rights needed to do the job. That recommendation was in effect long before XP. UAC makes this easier.

Windows 10 was not designed to run with a full time admin account. Among other things none of the modern apps will run. This is by design.

 

Certainly this should be up to the consumer to decide? Instead of surreptitiously neutering the UAC off switch and taking away freedom of choice like some sort of 1984 ministry.

The Windows 8 apps that I deleted from the start menu the day I got Windows 10?

What else won't work, or is it just those? Nothing critical? I can live without those, as they are merely dumbed down versions of the actual desktop programs.

 

The Settings app, which is quite important to managing your computer will not run if UAC is turned off.

The problem is that security is tough to do when you only have one way of doing it. It's impossible to do if you are required to support insecure situations as well.

Essentially you're asking to have two doors to your home. One with a lock, and one without. That basically makes the locked door useless and pointless.

If Microsoft were to make security optional, then there would be no security for anyone.

 

You are a member of the Administrators group, that's all. You are not "The administrator", those days are gone. You are still subject to UAC prompts for security purposes. I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to actually use the "run as admin" option. Not very often. In some cases yes, but its not something most will have to do very often. There is a full system administrator account but its hidden, and not good practice to use as your every day login account.

 

This settings app? Note, this was after the required restart to actually turn off UAC as-per guide I found, just like Windows 7 when it was required when you turned the slider all the way down. Back when off meant off... It's important to me because I routinely edit things in Program Files and other "Protected" areas, and Windows doesn't seem to let you with UAC on, even at "never notify"

Ugh, I should've stayed with XP.

Oh reallllly? Very interesting.

 

The XP admin level account provided full administrator rights all the time. Note that it did not provide full access to everything, such as the "System Volume Information" folder. The always on admin rights was a well known security risk but in 2001 it was considered acceptable.

But the situation changed between 2001 and the time when Vista was in the design phase. Security became an ever increasing problem and Microsoft was under pressure to do something about it. The good news was that computers had more resources. The specified minimum RAM for XP was 64 MB and there were those who thought that too high. But it wasn't enough to provide sophisticated security features. But for Vista it was decided that the minimum RAM specification could be reasonably increased to 512 MB (for Vista Home Basic) and 1 GB for other editions. UAC was one security feature that was now possible. It was a reasonable compromise between convenience and security. Security always has it's price. And not just with computers.

The designers of any complex software, and any modern operating system is very complex, must make many decisions. Often those decisions will be hard. Sometimes they will be very hard. Sometimes no matter what the decision there will be those who say it was a stupid one. You can't please everyone.

Providing more options to the user doesn't solve the problem. This adds complexity and a whole new set of problems. And more decisions for the designers.

The large majority of computer users know little of computers and don't want to learn. The security of UAC must be the default or it will remain off and be useless for the majority of users.

But there are those who will consider any compromise with convenience as unacceptable. For those individuals, and for the rare but real situations where a full time admin account is acceptable, there are options that allow this. I will not describe how to do this.

But if you choose to do this you must accept the consequences and things that will not work. These were the difficult decisions that Windows designers had to make.

 

What are the actual differences between the fake Administrator account that gets applied to new users when you create the first account and the built in one, besides UAC?

 

It's not a "fake" administrators account. It has privileges that the Standard user account doesn't.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...dows-10-a.html