It looks like your post went through without being moderated by the system, so.. on with the show.. I have a couple more suggestions regarding the hosts file.

Open the start menu then "Search", then "for files and folders" type in Hosts, select local drive C: and then click search, your search should find, hosts "no extension" with the path C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc, if so it's in there, and everything should be OK with the file, right click on HOSTS with the path listed above, then select properties.. There should be some check boxes at the bottom of the popup box tht read/lists host file attributes.. Find and Uncheck read only, then try running the previous application as "administrator and see what happens.

The other suggestion is to ensure that you are logged in as administrator, open the start menu, select "settings" then "control panel" then find and open "system", click on the "advanced" tab near the top of the pop up box, from the advanced tab find and select settings in the "performance" section. From the performance settings, find and select the tab that says "data execution prevention".. Find and select Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those that I select.. Then select "ADD..." Use the explorer popup box to find and select the application's "hostxpert.exe?" whatever .exe the start/desktop Icon is linked to.. It's the main program EXE file that you are using to edit/restore your hosts file... Adding this application to DEP's exclusion list should give it full administrator access. If these suggestions do not work, you may need to run in safe mode and change the read only attribute of c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts, then just delete it.

ensure that "hide file extensions of known file types" is unchecked in folder vew options. then open notepad.exe, located in start/programs/accessories then copy and paste the following into notepad..
Quote Originally Posted by hosts file
# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host

127.0.0.1 localhost
Then save the file as a .txt file in the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc folder, as hosts.txt
Then navigate to the c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc folder, then right click on the HOSTS.TXT file that you just saved, then select rename, and finally delete the file name's extention ".txt" including the period.. windows should as if you are SURE you want to chane the file type, click yes or OK, then you have a new fixed default hosts file.. without readonly attributes.. If you do not still have access to hosts then most likely one of your antivirus/anti-malware" applications has taken ownership and denied access to the file/path via a registry setting.... to restore/take ownership of the hosts file again, you open regedit from the start run command, then select edit/search, type in hosts
look for any registry entries related to hosts, then let me know what you find, It may be difficult, but I'll probly need to see the registry entries word for word. if you can get a screenshot /s of the host file registry entries found and use something like image shack to host them, I would be able to find the culprit and suggest the changes "to retake ownership and deny system access, while granting admin full access..