I've edited my HOSTS file on my Windows 7 Ultimate PC to re-route a couple of URLs so that they point to 127.0.0.1, but after saving the file (and re-opening to verify the changes were written) and pinging them they still reply with the actual IP instead of being redirected to 127.0.0.1 as they should be. At least, that's how it worked in XP, Vista, etc. I even went so far as to restart my DNS service on the machine via services.msc; but no dice.

So - I would imagine that Windows 7 keeps the HOSTS file there for legacy purposes and doesn't actually use it anymore. Is there a way to make W7 pay attention to the HOSTS file? In the event that you can't do that, where would I go to edit where these URLs point to?

Thanks in advance!

-Sootah