Steve Jones

Configure hosts / lmhosts

The host file is the one where one enters hostname and IP Address pair manually as against being served by a Name server (ex: DNS). As always the “host” file is under C:\\windows\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\ or %systemroot%\\system32\\drivers\\etc\\ and hence cannot be edited by normal users.

To edit the host file,

Click Start – search for “Notepad
“, right-click and select “Run as Administrator“. This should launch notepad with elevated privileges. Now, open the host file from the File menu, edit and save.

Now your computer will see
http://earth/index.htm

To speed up Windows 7 and to avoid needless programs getting loaded
in memory especially while editing disable \"Superfetch\". This tries to remember what at all applications you opened or keeping using regularly
and tries load these programs automatically into memory.
Superfetch can be disabled from

Control panel > Administrative support > services.

Right click \"Super fetch\" and disable or make it \"manual\" as required.

This is applicable for Vista too