Hosts Editor

Web addresses are remembered by your computer through a particular file which can be edited, namely the HOSTS file. It holds the IP and URL of target websites, so that they’re accessed faster, based on trust. Although the file can easily be edited even with a plain text editor, Hosts Editor comes as a specialized environment.

First of all, the application is portable, letting you have it stored on a thumb drive in case you need to use it on different computers. Registry entries are not altered in the process, so the health status remains intact. Make sure that .NET Framework is installed on the computer you plan to use it.

It’s a good idea to have a backup created of the original HOSTS file, and the application doesn’t provide a method of doing so. Once the program is started, a pretty straightforward window shows up, but you immediately see it means business. In other words, you benefit from a syntax highlighter, and a neatly organized space to work in.

The original content of the HOSTS file is displayed, with no additional elements. You can choose to reload the file, and save it, but a save dialog doesn’t appear in case you want to create an extra copy. As mentioned, any extra copy or backup needs to be manually created.

Syntax highlighting makes it easy to tell comments from IP and URLs. Although the general view of the interface is comfortable enough, it could have used text wrapping. A couple more functions can be accessed from the context menu, such as formatting, which automatically aligns all elements, as well as a function to toggle the state of a line, transforming it into a comment when disabled.

Taking everything into consideration, we can state that Hosts Editor might not come with any advanced editing options, but it is a reliable editor, specially created for the HOSTS file. Syntax highlighter comes in handy, and the context menu offers some comfortable alignment options.