Friday, September 26, 2008

Hosts file locked (read-only) on Server 2008

I was trying to edit the HOSTS file on Windows Server 2008 with Notepad++ but after editing it wouldn't let me save it with a "Save failed" - "Please check whether if this file is opened in another program" (the ...whether if... is their message not my typo).

Anyhow, didn't turn out to be read-only as I initially thought or another process as suggested (I did try stopping several services to see if that would help) but instead it turned out to be the fact that I hadn't started Notepad++ as administrator.

I don't understand why I need to run Notepad++ as administrator to edit the HOSTS file but aparently I do. I'm sure that it's just a matter of getting used to this new Vista style UAC that I assume is the underpinning of the security model in Server 2008.

To run Notepad++ (or any other program) as an administrator just right click on the application and select "Run As Administrator."

20 comments:

  1. Mozey: Right click notepad or notepad++ and on the menu you'll see an option to "run as administrator"

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  2. Yeah stupid trick. I like the linux way. sudo notepad++. Here I have to change the shortcut and now ... I can overwrite anything. And thank you Microsoft for VERY clear error messages... NOT

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  3. I've followed this entry up with my reasons why you should disable UAC: guyellisrocks.com/.../disable-uac-on-

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  4. hey can i edit the host file on server 2008 n make all the peers on the LAN reference it instead of DNS server....?

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  5. To be honest i am glad they did this other wise anyone could edit the files by mistake-dont know why your being hard on MS when they did something right?RIght clicking admin is easier than going into the terminal and typing sudo any day so i dont know what the problem is?

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  6. Thank you, very helpful.

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  7. This helped me so much... Thank you!!!
    I'm a student trying to get my working environment going with Netbeans for JSP.
    -steve

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  8. It may be a problem with who owns the file or rwx persmissions

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  9. Thanks! This post was extremely helpful.

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  10. Saved me a lot of troubleshooting! :-)

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  11. p.s. happens in Windows 7 as well.

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  12. Right click on command prompt and run as administrator. Anything launched from the command prompt will be with administrative permissions. Then type "notepad" and hit enter. Ctrl-O and browse to hosts file, change notepad drop down from "Text Documents" to "All Files". Edit, save.

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  13. This fix really rocked and saved my time this Sunday.

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  14. thankyou very much! very very helpfulI

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  15. Thanks a lot, This worked!

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  16. I don't understand why this is necessary but it did work like a charm. Thanks for the tip, Guy!

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  17. I didn't find that in the menu in Win7 EE, but I worked it out through this way:
    Properties--Security
    and change the attributes in "Permissions for Authenticated Users".
    Thank you very much.

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  18. Thank you for this! You came up quickly via googling "edit hosts file read only" and this was exactly the solution I needed. Editing with UltraEdit in Windows 7.

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  19. Hi, This doesn't work for me. When I navigate to the apphost.xml through NotePad++, the file I needs doesn't show. Even though it's set to display all files.

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