Unable to edit Hosts file, UAC Off

Welcome to the forum,

Have you tried running notepad as admin?



Then navigating to the hosts file,



Edit away...

Unlike in Windows 7 the Windows 10 GUI method does not fully disable UAC or grant you full time Admin rights. There is a registry setting that will do this but it's use is not recommended. You would find that many things will not work in this mode and security would be compromised. I will not go into that.

The supported way to edit the hosts file is to run notepad as administrator.

derekimo said:

Welcome to the forum,

Have you tried running notepad as admin?



Then navigating to the hosts file,



Edit away...

Run as administrator? But I am the administrator. I have to do an extra click for no reason every time I want to run something?

Makes no sense.

It works, although I'll have to manually browse to a file every time? Is there no way to run as admin from the right click open with context menu?

Unlike in Windows 7 the Windows 10 GUI method does not fully disable UAC or grant you full time Admin rights. There is a registry setting that will do this but it's use is not recommended. You would find that many things will not work in this mode and security would be compromised. I will not go into that.

The supported way to edit the hosts file is to run notepad as administrator.

Windows XP had full time admin rights (for an "administrator" account, go figure! revolutionary!) , which I ran for nearly 15 years with no issues, no UAC nonsense. What "many things" will not work?

The purpose of UAC is to enhance security.

In XP and older an Admin account had full rights all the time. That was convenient, but not very secure.
The problem is that by default all programs you run have the same rights and priveleges you do. If that program happens to be malicious (and this is very hard to prevent) you have a problem. It will be able to do pretty much anything it wants. That is bad. When XP was released in 2001 that was an acceptable risk. In 2016 it is not.

Starting with Vista an Admin account has by default only the rights of a standard user. When running that malicious program it will have only the rights of a standard user and be limited in what it can do. That is good. By using UAC such an account can temporarily be given the full admin rights.

Long standing best practice is to run with only the minimum rights needed to do the job. That recommendation was in effect long before XP. UAC makes this easier.

Windows 10 was not designed to run with a full time admin account. Among other things none of the modern apps will run. This is by design.

When XP was released in 2001 that was an acceptable risk. In 2016 it is not.

Certainly this should be up to the consumer to decide? Instead of surreptitiously neutering the UAC off switch and taking away freedom of choice like some sort of 1984 ministry.

Among other things none of the modern apps will run. This is by design.

The Windows 8 apps that I deleted from the start menu the day I got Windows 10?

What else won't work, or is it just those? Nothing critical? I can live without those, as they are merely dumbed down versions of the actual desktop programs.

The Settings app, which is quite important to managing your computer will not run if UAC is turned off.

Culbrelai said:

Certainly this should be up to the consumer to decide? Instead of surreptitiously neutering the UAC off switch and taking away freedom of choice like some sort of 1984 ministry.

The problem is that security is tough to do when you only have one way of doing it. It's impossible to do if you are required to support insecure situations as well.

Essentially you're asking to have two doors to your home. One with a lock, and one without. That basically makes the locked door useless and pointless.

If Microsoft were to make security optional, then there would be no security for anyone.