Can't add hosts

[Newsman]

I was working on my brother-in-law's Windows 7 Home system last night (and this morning before work) and cleaned a whole bunch of stuff, especially including MyWay.Mywebsearch toolbar junk off his computer. It also appears to have been infected with some variant of the fake antivirus trojan. Fortunately, I think they called me before they "bought" the fake antivirus.

Anyway, long story short, I decided to install SpyBot and see if it would find anything else. When it came time to innoculate the system, it couldn't add the hosts file. I even tried to manually add the hosts file, but it wouldn't. Knowing Windows 7 was more secure than XP or Vista, I had started SpyBot as an admin, so that surprised me.

Wondering if this is a Windows 7 issue or if there's some malware still present? I did manage to install the Hosts file by copying it off my XP system to the appropriate location on the Win7 machine, but it worries me that there may still be some malware lurking around on that machine.

For the record, I used Vipre Rescue (both in "normal" mode and in "safe mode, command-prompt") and Malware Bytes to clean the system, so I'm relatively certain that there's very little, if anything, left of any spyware/malware.

[spybotsandra]

Hello,

The blocking of the host file is often caused by malware.
Please follow the procedure in this link: "BEFORE you POST"(READ this Procedure BEFORE Requesting Assistance)
Start your own thread in the Malware Removal Forum where a helper will advise you as soon as available.

Best regards
Sandra
Team Spybot

[Newsman]

Problem appears resolved. I had to change permissions on the folder in order to even SEE the Hosts file. I have since updated it with the SpyBot hosts file and returned the machine to it's owner. Thanks.