v2.4 · Windows 10/11 (64-bit)

More than a Hosts file editor.

Name: HOTS Hosts
Author: Darsono

HOTS Hosts is a modern Windows security and privacy tool for internet access, parental protection, system privacy and the hosts file. Protect. Control. Monitor.

Download HOTS Hosts Browse the code How to install

GPLv3 · free & open source 🔒 No data collected · no ads No account needed EN · PL · FR · DE · ES · PT · RU · IT

Free download, no trial, no hidden costs · Windows will ask to confirm admin rights on first run · SmartScreen may warn about a new app — see why

HOTS Hosts in front, with HOTS Hosts Lite and HOTS Uninstaller behind it

HOTS Hosts — Diagnostics, malware scanner

HOTS Hosts — Diagnostics, domain existence check

HOTS Hosts — Parental Control blocklist categories

HOTS Hosts — Privacy module with tiered telemetry protection

Click a screenshot to enlarge.

# what's inside

Four modules, one clean app

HOTS Hosts isn't just a table editor — it bundles the tools people actually reach for around the hosts file.

Core Editing & Safety

Everything you'd expect from a proper table editor, plus a safety net under every save.

Toggle, don't delete — flip an entry off without losing it
Bulk paste multiple "IP hostname" lines at once, with column sorting and live search
Auto-backup before every save — rotating archive of the last 15, browsable in the Backup Manager
Diff preview before writing, plus post-save verification
Import/export to .txt or .csv, with a 20,000-entry cap to protect the Windows DNS Client

Diagnostics

Catches the entries that are quietly broken or actively dangerous.

Domain existence check — queries Google/Cloudflare public DNS directly and in parallel, bypassing your local hosts file
Malware scanner — checks your entries for signs of hijacking so you don't have to know what to look for. It covers well over a dozen risk signals:
redirected system/payment domains blocked Windows Update / AV redirect to public IP mass-redirect patterns raw-IP hostnames Unicode homoglyphs zero-width characters Punycode hostnames DGA-style domains fuzzy-matched typosquatting
Known-safe subdomains and CDNs are auto-whitelisted, plus a per-entry ignore list so confirmed-safe results stop reappearing

Parental Control

Blocklists for 15 categories — each in its own tagged section so toggles never collide.

New to this? Read the guide for parents →

Adult content Games Torrents Dating Random video chat YouTube TikTok Instagram Facebook Twitter/X WhatsApp Snapchat Twitch Pinterest Reddit

One-click Cloudflare Family DNS — automatically applied across all active network interfaces, no manual adapter selection needed
DNS settings backed up per interface and restored automatically when disabled; protection persists across sessions
🔒 Hosts file lock (new) — denies write/delete access to the hosts file at the Windows permission level, so blocklists can't be edited from outside the app
🚫 Application & VPN client blocking (new) — stops specific programs, or a curated list of 10 popular VPN clients, from launching at all, with Watchdog monitoring that flags any tampering
🔐 DNS-over-HTTPS blocking (new) — closes the browser-level DoH bypass system-wide via managed-browser policy in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox, so it can't be re-enabled from inside the browser

Privacy

Rebuilt from a single on/off switch into a tiered control center — 37 individual system tweaks across four levels.

How the privacy levels work in plain words →

Basic (13 tweaks) — telemetry policy, DiagTrack & dmwappushservice services, advertising ID, Bing/search suggestions, Recall, feedback, CEIP
Medium (12 tweaks) — firewall rules (CompatTelRunner, devicecensus, WerFault) and 9 scheduled tasks (Appraiser, Consolidator, UsbCeip…)
Advanced (5 tweaks) — WerSvc / PcaSvc services, Activity Feed, cross-device activity sync
Privacy+ (7 tweaks) (new) — location service, handwriting/text input collection, personalization, cross-device clipboard, Find My Device
📡 Known telemetry domains — the hosts-file blocklist toggle formerly under Parental Control lives here too
🩹 Drift detection — flags any setting Windows silently resets, one click to re-apply
🛟 System Restore integration — one-click restore point, plus removing Windows' restore-frequency limit if it's blocking you
📝 Block your own domains (new) — a free-text blocklist for anything the built-in categories miss, stored separately so it survives a hosts restore or uninstall

🌗 Dark & Light themes — switch anytime in Options 🎨 5 accent colors — Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Teal 💾 Auto-backup — rotating archive of last 15 🔄 Built-in update checker — pulls the latest GitHub release 🔑 Password protection — salted hash, required to open or uninstall 🌐 8 languages — EN, PL, FR, DE, ES, PT, RU, IT 📤 Import & Export — .txt hosts format or .csv 📝 Raw text view with syntax highlighting 🔧 Auto-repair — dedupes and fixes malformed lines

# changelog

What's new in 2.4

A focused release: one more language and safer password storage, on top of the lighter 2.3 base.

🌐

Italian language added — the interface is now available in 8 languages.

🔐

Stronger password storage — the startup password is now stored as a salted hash. Existing passwords keep working and are upgraded the next time you change the password.

🧹

Minor improvements throughout the application's code.

⚡

Still lighter since 2.3 — the app runs on its own lightweight window and widgets instead of PySide6-Fluent-Widgets, with significantly lower resource usage.

# what's next

Two tools today. More on the way.

HOTS Hosts was the first release under HOTS Tools — Handy OS Tools Suite, a small line of no-nonsense Windows utilities. HOTS Hosts Lite joins it as a lighter, simpler sibling with its own focus — not a downgrade, a different tool.

● available — v2.4

HOTS Hosts

Edit, back up, diagnose, and lock down your Windows hosts file — with parental controls and a telemetry blocker built in.

● available — v1.2

HOTS Hosts Lite

A smaller, focused hosts editor — hosts lock, custom domain blocklist, 3 saved profiles, and per-app firewall blocking. Free and open source.

○ in planning

HOTS Uninstaller

Soon.

# faq

Questions people actually ask

Will this slow down my PC or internet?

Generally no — HOTS Hosts itself doesn't run as a background service or monitor your traffic. The one honest exception is the hosts file itself: Windows' own DNS Client service loads the whole file into memory, so an extremely large one (tens of thousands of entries) can genuinely slow down or even hang DNS lookups. That's why HOTS Hosts enforces a 20,000-entry safety limit and blocks saves beyond it — for anything under that, you won't notice a difference.

Is any of my data collected or sent anywhere?

No. There's no telemetry, no analytics, no account, and no ads. The only network requests HOTS Hosts makes are the ones you trigger yourself — checking a domain, running the malware scanner, or checking for app updates.

Will VPN client blocking affect a VPN I use myself?

Only if you specifically enable it. It's off by default and, when turned on, only blocks a curated list of 10 well-known consumer VPN clients — not VPN protocols in general, and not anything your workplace or router might use.

Will DNS-over-HTTPS blocking break my browser?

No. It only turns off the encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS bypass feature in Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox — normal browsing keeps working exactly the same, just resolved through the regular system DNS (and hosts file) instead of around it.

Does it work on Windows 7, 8, or 32-bit systems?

No — HOTS Hosts requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.

Is it actually open source, or just "source available"?

Fully open source under GPLv3 — the entire codebase is public on GitHub, so you (or anyone) can read exactly what it does before trusting it with Administrator rights.

# get started

Two ways to run it

Grab the .exe if you just want it working, or build from source if you'd rather verify the code first.

Run the installer

Recommended.

1Download HOTS_Hosts_setup.exe from the Releases page
2Double-click — UAC will prompt for Administrator rights
3Follow the setup wizard. Done. No further setup required.

About the SmartScreen warning

HOTS Hosts is a small independent project without a paid code-signing certificate, so Windows SmartScreen may warn that it "isn't commonly downloaded." That's expected for any new unsigned .exe — it doesn't mean the file is unsafe. Click More info → Run anyway, or build from source yourself if you'd rather verify first. See CODE_SIGNING.md for the full story.

Administrator: Command Prompt

$ pip install "PySide6>=6.11.1" certifi

$ git clone https://github.com/darsono6/HOTS.git

$ cd HOTS

$ pythonw -m hosts_editor

✓ launching HOTS…

Requires Python 3.10+, PySide6 (6.11.1 or newer) and certifi. Must be run as Administrator — the hosts file is write-protected by Windows.

❤️ Support the project

Hi, I'm Darsono. HOTS Hosts is built and maintained by me, and it's free to use. If it makes your work easier, you can support its development — any amount, even a small one, helps keep it updated, and I'm truly grateful.

PayPal

Ko-fi hots.support@gmail.com

📄 License & disclaimer

Released under the GNU GPLv3. Provided in good faith but without any warranty — modifying the hosts file affects system-level network resolution, so use with care. You use this software at your own risk. Found a security issue? See SECURITY.md for how to report it.