[ShockBodyLike]

I encountered a problem while doing a full system scan on my computer with McAfee. As it finished scanning, it detected C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts and its status is " Potentially unwanted program." I have not been able to delete, clean, or quarantine it. How will I be able to fix this problem?

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It is interesting that it notes a problem, so I suspect it has been altered.

HOSTS is an old throwback to the days before DNS servers. Mcafree must see that it has been altered from it's normal state, which may or may not be bad.

Locate the file and open it in notepad (it is a text file with no extension)

Paste contents here.

[gerryf]

It is interesting that it notes a problem, so I suspect it has been altered.

HOSTS is an old throwback to the days before DNS servers. Mcafree must see that it has been altered from it's normal state, which may or may not be bad.

Locate the file and open it in notepad (it is a text file with no extension)

Paste contents here.

[ShockBodyLike]

I've opened the HOSTS file with notebad. What should I do next? I've found sites that I do not want.

[gerryf]

You could delete the entire line, but, why do you not want them?

Be aware that sometimes these are useful settings.

Forexample, if you wanted to block a site, your line would look like this

www.toyrus.com 127.0.0.1

What that does is it makes your browser look for a site on your own computer, thus returning nothing. Some people use the host file to block ads, popups....

So, it might be best if you pasted it here (if it's not too long).

Also, running hijackthis will flag many of the worse offenders.