I use thehosts file to setup multiple local websites in iis and assigneach website a separate name i.e. 127.0.0.1 MyClient.local. When i opened the hosts file in windows 7 the localhost entries were conmmented out with a message:# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.Does windows 7 now use its own dns server to manage these entries instead of [me]manually editingthe hosts file??

I too put a large list of my stores in the hosts file. I like to vnc into my stores by using the store number instead of their IP. I can't remember 120 subnets. So, I copied my hosts file in from XP, but it doesn't work. Any ideas? Am I doing something wrong?

Well i dont have an answer anout the DNS thing but i did manage to add my entries into the hosts file. Turned out i had a security issue editing the hosts file. Even though im in the Administrators group and this group has modify permissions, i had to take ownership of the file, then add my account with mofidy rights to allow me to save the file. (hosts file Properties>Security>Advanced>Owner>Edit. Then back to hosts file Properties>Security>Edit Add / Select my account and grant Modify).I then copied and pasted / modified the hosts file as i normally would which still works as normal. I still dont get why ::1 and 127.0.0.1 mapping to localhost is commented out in windows 7. Maybe this is handled by the networks file??