Situation: immunizing the hosts file on Windows 2000 slows the computer down.

Experienced: on Windows 2000, immunization of the hosts file is currently possible without even a warning.

Expected: some ideas:

Show hosts file immunization always when not running on 2000
Show it on 2000 if special tweak is set
Show it on 2000 if system service slowing system down is not running (to automatically show it to those who don't have the ns service running)
Show it on 2000 if already immunized (to give people a chance to undo it)Comments and ideas for a solution that pleases all users are welcome!

In addition to the above, on 2000 the service does not only need to be stopped, but also to be deactivated, to have the hosts file shown on the immunization list.

The tweak mentioned is ImmunizeHostsOn2000, dword, set to 1 to show immunization anyway.

Would you explain what "service" in W2k you are referring to?

Currently having a big issue with SpyBot 1.5.2.20 bloating the ___ out of my host file. Since I use the host file both for access to the proxy service and for avoiding poisoning of IP's that I use regularly, having SpyBot add 274K bytes to my hosts file is not acceptable.

But I have used SpyBot (all previous versions) and clicked dutifully on "Immunize" at every update and NEveR seen my host file change. This has only become an issue with the version 1.5.2.20. btw last previous version was 1.4

tia

The system service is called DNS Client.

And you've got the choice, you can simply toggle the checkbox in front of the Hosts file immunization entry to include or exclude it in the immunization process ;)