There are many reasons you would want or need to block websites on your computer. Maybe you’re trying to focus on work and don’t want distractions. Perhaps you’re concerned about your child’s online safety and would like to block inappropriate content. Whatever the reason, Windows 10 offers multiple ways to block websites.
Use Parental Controls
The first option for blocking access to websites is to use parental controls. This requires setting up a Microsoft account with a family group and configuring the type of censorship you’d like for each child’s account.
To set up parental controls, open the Settings app and go to Accounts > Family & other users. Then click ‘Add a family member’ and enter the email address of the person you want to add as a family member. If they already have a Microsoft account, they’ll appear in the list below, and you can select them there instead.
Next, click Manage family settings online, which will take you to the Family Portal on Microsoft’s website, where you can set age restrictions for every member of your family group. You can also place time limits, approve or block specific apps and games, and remotely monitor their online activity across all their devices.
Use the Hosts File
The host’s file is a system file that maps hostnames to IP addresses. You can use the host’s file to block certain websites. This is the simplest way to block specific websites on your computer without installing third-party software—the host’s file maps hostnames (in this case, particular websites) to IP addresses. This means that you need to find out what your public IP address is. When a computer attempts to access a specific website, Windows checks its host’s file before querying DNS servers. By mapping the website’s hostname to an invalid IP address like 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1, their browser will be unable to load it because it won’t know where it’s located on the internet.
Block Websites without Administrative Rights
There are other ways to block websites without administrative rights, but they all require installing third-party software. If you do want to try using third-party software. If you’re going to block websites on a specific browser like Chrome or Firefox, you can do so by installing a third-party browser extension like Block Site for Chrome or Leech Block for Firefox. These extensions will help you block sites with ease.
Block Websites Using a Router
If you’d like to block websites on your Windows 10 computer for all users, the best way to do so is by changing a setting on your router. Although you can block sites on an individual computer, this only affects the device it’s done on. If you want to limit specific site access for all users, blocking them at the router level is more effortless.
You’ll need to access your router’s setup page in a web browser and enter a username and password. Usually, these are printed on a label on the bottom of the router or in its documentation. When accessing your router’s setup page, look for a section like “Website Filtering” or “Parental Controls.” Then select either “Block Specific Websites” or “Enable Website Blocking.” If you’re asked whether you want to block the site or block it during certain hours permanently, choose the former option and click “Save.”
Once you’ve done this, no one will be able to access specific sites from any computer connected to your Wi-Fi network.
Block Websites Using Your Web Browser
This is not a native feature. However, you can always use the built-in web browser in Windows 10 to block websites; aka create a blacklist. To do it, open your default web browser, either Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. Click the menu button on the top-right corner and select Settings from the menu.
Scroll down on the Settings page and click View advanced settings button to view more options in Settings.
Under Search in the address bar section, click Change search engine button to open a list of installed search engines on your PC. Here, select Bing from the list of search engines (if it’s not already established). If you don’t have the Bing search engine installed on your PC, click Add New, then select Bing from the list.
Now, click View advanced settings button again and scroll down to the Content blocking section. Under this section, please turn on the Block inappropriate websites option by moving its slider to the ‘On’ position.
That’s it! You will be able to block websites using Microsoft Edge now!
Final Thoughts
The internet is a beautiful place, but sometimes you need to block a particular website. Maybe a website is causing problems on your computer, or you don’t want your kids to access specific sites. This article provides you with several ways to do that on Windows 10.
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