Advertisements, tracking scripts and other countless lines of code downloaded on to your machine to spam and monitor you whenever you connect to the internet.
Host is a project to block advertisements, tracking scripts and other websites including pornographic content using this host file.
I also have integrated a feature to toggle the Host file on/off as per the need. Currently, this approach is available for Windows operating system.
Project name inspired from: https://pxlnv.com/blog/bullshit-web/
This hosts file consolidates several reputable hosts files, and merges them into a unified hosts file with duplicates removed.
Download the ‘hosts’ file and replace the hosts file in C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Alternatively, you can download the desired version from Mr Steven Black's GitHub repository and download the required hosts file (Preferable -> Unified hosts + fake news + gambling + porn + social).
If you download from above Steven Black’s repository, then append the new hosts file content (modify as require) to existing hosts file at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Win + R -> regedit -> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile\shell
Double click (Default) and change the value to runas
Win + R -> regedit -> Enter
Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache
Double click Start and change the value to 4
Win + R -> services.msc
Search = DNS Client -> properties and verify Start type = Disabled and all other buttons are disabled
We might often have to turn the hosts file on and off, for various reasons. Doing this by navigating all the way to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and making necessary changes will be a pain. So in this section we will create shortcut to toggle the hosts file whenever required. There are two methods for this, follow whichever suits you.
Download hosts[dot]bat file and save it in C:\Windows\System32
Win + R -> hosts -> Enter -> Yes -> hosts file will be disabled/enabled
Download hosts[dot]bat file and save it at your desired location
Click the Start button
Start typing Command Prompt in the search box
Right-click Command Prompt once it appears in the search results, and select Pin to Taskbar
While holding SHIFT, right-click the black Command Prompt icon in the taskbar
Select Properties from the context menu that appeared
Add following to Target field: %windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c “drive\desired path\hosts.bat”
Go to General tab and change the name to Toggle Hosts and add a fancy icon if you want
Access with shortcut -> Win + pinned location -> Enter -> Yes -> hosts file will be disabled/enabled
Hosts file credits to Mr Steven Black and other contributors of the host project.
Hosts[dot]bat file credits to Mr Ramesh Srinivasan.