How to update the windows host file entry using PowerShell?

Let say you want to update the host file particular entry, we have the below host file in our local computer.

Example

Get-Content $env:windir\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Output

# For example: # #      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server #       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host # localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself. #       127.0.0.1       localhost #       ::1             localhost 8.8.8.8   Google.com

We need to update the google.com entry to IP address 4.4.4.4.

Example

$hostfile = "$env:windir\system32\drivers\etc\hosts" $file = Get-Content $hostfile $newfile = $file -replace "8.8.8.8   Google.com","4.4.4.4   Google.com" Set-Content -Value $newfile -Path $hostfile -Force

Once you check the host file again, a new entry will be displayed.

To update the host file on the remote computer, just change the $hostfile variable location and the rest content will be the same.

$hostfile = "\RemoteServer\C$\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"