MVPS Hosts File Install Routine
Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 5:51 am
Applies to 6.6.2.3 (requires UNZIP feature)
Create a new 3rd Party Application and name/describe it.
The file URL is http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip (direct download)
Save it on the current user's desktop (%userprofile%\desktop\hosts.zip).
DO NOT USE %ThirdParty% or other UVK-specific variables. That breaks the rest of the process.
Check the box for automatic unzipping.
On the second page of app setup, use the following 3 commands, in order:
This will download the zip to the current user's desktop, then extract to a folder called "hosts". It then copies the hosts file to the proper location in Windows, and finally does some housekeeping by deleting the downloaded .zip and the extracted folder.
What is MVPS Hosts?
It's a 500KB Hosts file designed to filter out and block a great number of malware and adware related domains. It's not perfect, but in a world full of threats, it's not a bad idea to block the known bad guys by default. On a modern PC, I don't even notice the tiny amount of time it takes for my system to check the list before resolving a new domain (cached domains don't consult the list).
Create a new 3rd Party Application and name/describe it.
The file URL is http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip (direct download)
Save it on the current user's desktop (%userprofile%\desktop\hosts.zip).
DO NOT USE %ThirdParty% or other UVK-specific variables. That breaks the rest of the process.
Check the box for automatic unzipping.
On the second page of app setup, use the following 3 commands, in order:
Code: Select all
cmd.exe /c copy %userprofile%\desktop\hosts\hosts %systemroot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
cmd.exe /c del %userprofile%\desktop\hosts.zip
cmd.exe /c rd /s /q %userprofile%\desktop\hosts
What is MVPS Hosts?
It's a 500KB Hosts file designed to filter out and block a great number of malware and adware related domains. It's not perfect, but in a world full of threats, it's not a bad idea to block the known bad guys by default. On a modern PC, I don't even notice the tiny amount of time it takes for my system to check the list before resolving a new domain (cached domains don't consult the list).