It might seem silly, but make sure the path to hosts is set properly. Below is %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters] "DataBasePath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,\ 00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,\ 64,00,72,00,69,00,76,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,5c,00,65,00,74,00,63,00,00,00