HOSTS Manager

HOSTS Manager is a lightweight command-line application that can effortlessly modify the Windows Hosts file to allow or prevent certain websites from reaching your computer. This is a security measure that can make your Internet browsing experience more comfortable by dismissing domains prone to malware, adware or data collection activities.

It can also be used to protect children by banning NSFW (adult-oriented) websites or those promoting violence or other content that promotes misconduct. The quickest way to this approach is by updating the Hosts file, which is in charge of IP mappings: figuring out the relationships between websites and IP addresses.

HOSTS Manager doesn't require installation and comes bundled with two separate executable files for 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Windows. If you launch the .exe, the tool starts updating the Hosts file automatically, adding ready entries which can be separately examined in three text documents with sources and user lists to ban as well as domains to allow (whitelist). Sources are also loaded from many cache files.

One of the files contains a list of telemetry and other privacy-related functions that can be disabled in Windows 10. If you wish to edit entries from the predefined lists, add new entries or remove existing ones, you have to manually do this after opening the text documents (.txt).

There are also commands available for specifying the destination IP address to resolve all domains (/ip, default is 0.0.0.0), indicate the destination Hosts file location (/path) and create new lines (/os) with Windows (crlf), Linux (lf) or Mac(cr).

We haven't come across any issues while testing this software tool on the latest Windows version in our tests. HOSTS Manager updated the Hosts file in reasonable time while remaining light on system resources consumption.

On the other hand, it doesn't have a function for restoring the Hosts file to its initial settings, so it might be a good idea to create a backup of the file before running this utility.