Trick to Editing Protected Text Files?

Just wondering if anyone has a trick to editing protected text files such as your hosts file (c:\windows\System32\Drivers\etc). I open Notepad or Notepad++ as an administrator but it still wont even show the etc folder, so I have to go through my explorer window and copy it to the desktop, open it there, edit it, save it, then copy it back to the protected folder, confirm over writing and then finally it's in place. It's really annoying!

In the files Properties,Security, does your account have all permissions for the file. If not click Edit and give it Permissions

You must be an administrator to edit the read only file.

Right mouse & change the read only protection.
edit file
set protection again.

You could always write your own edit ?????.bat file, see below: -

ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO.
ECHO Add entries to your Hosts file?
ECHO.
ECHO.
PAUSE
IF "%OS%"=="Windows_NT" (
SET HOSTFILE=%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
)
attrib -R "%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"
ECHO.>> %HOSTFILE%
ECHO # additions>> %HOSTFILE%
ECHO 127.0.0.1 ???>> %HOSTFILE%
ECHO 127.0.0.1 ???>> %HOSTFILE%
ECHO 127.0.0.1 ???>> %HOSTFILE%
ECHO # End of additions>> %HOSTFILE%
attrib +R "%windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"

ECHO Additions made
PAUSE

psilokan said:

Just wondering if anyone has a trick to editing protected text files such as your hosts file (c:\windows\System32\Drivers\etc). I open Notepad or Notepad++ as an administrator but it still wont even show the etc folder, so I have to go through my explorer window and copy it to the desktop, open it there, edit it, save it, then copy it back to the protected folder, confirm over writing and then finally it's in place. It's really annoying!

Click to expand...

This is most likely because you do not have Admin permissions to edit any of those files

If you are using a Windows Admin Account that You created then that user is not authorized to tamper with System32

Try doing your same Techniques using the Vista Admin, Be warned all Programs you run will be run with Full Control (INCLUDING VIRUSES IF YOU HAVE ANY)

So Beware


To enable the Account see http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67567-administrator-account.html?ltr=A For More Information

EDIT: You may also want to see this Tutorial

See http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/67717-take-ownership-file.html?filter[11]=Networking%20Internet For More Information

Hope This Helps,
Josh