How to Block Any Website On Windows Computers or Browser
There are several reasons why you might want to block certain websites on your computer. Some websites could be spreading viruses, contain explicit content or even be trying to steal your personal data. While you may well be more than capable of avoiding these websites, but that doesn't stand true for every one who uses your device. In such cases, it might be best to block certain websites.
You
need only make a few simple additions to the Windows hosts file. This
method is straightforward and free, and it doesn’t require you to
download or install any additional software. It's an effective method
for restricting users of all ages from seeing the content you don’t
want them to access.
There
are different ways to go about blocking websites. You can choose to
block websites only on specific browsers, the entire operating
system, or indeed your network router. Here's some process we 'll
show.
How to Block Any Website On Windows Computers :
- Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen or press the ⊞ Win key.
On
Windows 8, you must hover your cursor in the top-right corner of the
screen and the magnifying
glass
icon
- Type Notepad into Start. Doing so will display the Notepad app at the top of the Start menu window.
- Right-click on Notepad and select Run as administrator. This option will open Notepad using your administrator privileges. If you don't open Notepad in administrator mode, you won't be able to edit the "hosts" file.
On
a laptop with a trackpad instead of a traditional mouse, use two
fingers to tap the trackpad instead
of
right-clicking.
- Click Yes when prompted. Doing so will confirm your decision and open Notepad.
- Click File and select Open.
- Double-click the Local Disk (C:) and then go to Windows > System32 > drivers > etc. Double-click each folder until you are in the "etc" folder.
- Click the "Text Documents" drop-down menu and select All Files. You should see several files appear in the window.
- Double-click the "hosts" file. This will open the "hosts" file in Notepad, allowing you to view and edit its contents.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the "hosts" file. You'll see two "localhost" lines of text here.
- Click below the last line of text. It will say either "::1 localhost" or "127.0.0.1 localhost" at the bottom of the page. Your cursor must be directly below the last line of text on this page.
Be
careful not to delete anything that is already in the hosts file.
- Type in 127.0.0.1 and press Tab ↹. This is the loopback address to your own computer. This is what will return an error page in your web browser when someone tries to visit the blocked site.
- Press ↵ Enter. This moves your cursor to a new line. The code you entered will tell your computer to redirect the website to your loopback address instead.
- You can add as many sites as you want to block, one per line, using the same number (127.0.0.1) as before.
- Click File and select Save. The website you added will now be unreachable in any web browser on the computer.To unblock a site, simply open the hosts file in Notepad again with administrator privileges and delete the lines that you added. Make sure you save your changes after removing the lines you added or the sites will still be blocked.
How
to Block Any Website On Browser :
Blocking a website on any browser is the easiest way to get the
job done.On Firefox, you can install an addon called BlockSite to block website.
- Install the addon, press Ctrl+Shift+a, and click Extensions on the left. Now click Options under BlockSite. In the pop-up, click Add and type the name of the website you want blocked. Repeat the process for all websites you don't want to access. Click OK.
- Now these websites will be blocked on Firefox. You can also set a password in BlockSite to prevent others from editing the list of blocked websites. This can be done via the options menu described in the previous step.
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