What's the Windows equivalent of "/etc/hosts"?

Question

I can block my little brother from accessing a website on my Mac by adding the following line to my "/etc/hosts" file.

127.0.0.1 someaddictingwebsite.com

Do Windows systems have a file analogous to "/etc/hosts"? Can I achieve the same effect on a PC?

Can I update the question body to add "I would like to change the IP resolution of a specific domain on Windows. This can be useful for multiple purposes, for example to do tests, emulate a website migration, or block...." in order to be able to keep this useful question, without being marked as duplicate. So the answers here can concentrate about /etc/hosts on Windows. — Valerio Bozz, Sep 01 '23 at 10:11

score 42 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 29 '12 at 17:38

It's normally under \WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc (If there isn't one, just create it).
(you have not specified OS version, win 8 monitors this file and reverts any changes, see eg. here for discussion: http://www.howtogeek.com/122404/how-to-block-websites-in-windows-8s-hosts-file/)

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