PowerShell script to update hosts file-John Liu Blog

You may need to add computer entery into hosts file for easy RDP access. Run following PowerShell script in administrator mode to add the target machine/IP into hosts file. Or you can manually open the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file and edit it.

#Run this script in Administrator mode
cls
$Srv = Read-Host -Prompt "Target Server Name"
$IP = Read-Host -Prompt "Target Server IP"
$newEntry =$IP + "		" + $Srv
$hostfile = Get-Content C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
[bool]$Update = 0
if (-NOT ($IP | Select-String -Pattern "[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+")) {
    Write-Output "IP address not valid!"
} elseif($hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "$IP\s+$Srv") {
    Write-Output "Server/IP entry already exists!"
} elseif ($hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "$IP\s+") {
    $oldSrv = $hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "$IP\s+"
    $oldSrv = $oldSrv -replace "$IP\s+",""
    $respond = Read-Host -Prompt "IP address already assigned to a different server ($oldSrv). Do you want to replace it?(Y/N)"
    if ($respond.ToUpper() -eq "Y") {
        $oldEntry = ($hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "$IP\s+")
        $hostfile = $hostfile -replace $oldEntry, $newEntry
        [bool]$Update = 1
        
    }
} elseif ($hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "\s+$Srv") {
    $oldSrv = $hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "\s+$Srv"
    $oldSrv = $oldSrv -replace "\s+$Srv",""
    $respond = Read-Host -Prompt "Server already assigned a different IP ($oldSrv). Do you want to replace it?(Y/N)"
    if ($respond.ToUpper() -eq "Y") {
        $oldEntry = ($hostfile | Select-String -Pattern "\s+$Srv")
        $hostfile = $hostfile -replace $oldEntry, $newEntry
        $hostfile
        [bool]$Update = 1
        
    }
} else {
    $hostfile = $hostfile + $newEntry
    [bool]$Update = 1
}

if ($Update) {
    #$hostfile |Out-File C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
    Write-output "File updated!"
} else {
    Write-Output "No change made!"
}

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