Help! I'm running into an EPERM error with the hosts file on Windows

[clay]

This is usually caused by the hosts file being set to read-only or locked by anti-virus.

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1. Remove Read-only Attribute

1. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
2. Right-click on the hosts file and go to “Properties”
3. Uncheck “Read-only”
4. Click “Apply”
5. Re-open Local

Screenshot

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2. Anti-Virus/Internet Security

Avira

See https://answers.avira.com/en/question/avira-blocks-hosts-file-what-can-i-do-90

Kaspersky Total Security

1. Open Kaspsersky Total Security
2. Go to “More Tools”

3. Go to “Application Control » Details”

4. Click “Manage applications”

5. Right-click on “Local by Flywheel” and set its Restrictions to Trusted

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If the steps above do not work, you can try adding the Window’s hosts file to the exclusions list in Kaspersky to resolve this issue. See https://support.kaspersky.com/12160 for details on how to add an exclusion.

Once you have the exclusion window open, exclude this path: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts