HostName Commander allows you to quickly turn off the host name information you have set up with it, and let Windows perform the host name resolution as usual, as if HostName Commander were not present in the system. You may find this feature of use when, for instance, the host name information you have set up causes a web site not to display properly. Or, if you have configured HostName Commander to block some web sites from other users of your computer, but you want to see the blocked websites yourself.

The quickest way to disable HostName Commander is by choosing the Disable command from the menu of the taskbar icon. Note that you can choose to protect this command with a password, to prevent unauthorized users from disabling HostName Commander without your permission. If you have the main window of HostName Commander on the screen, you can also choose the Disable command from the Save Changes menu, to achieve the same result.

When you disable HostName Commander, all host name mappings you have set up with it become inactive, and ignored by Windows when resolving host names to the IP addresses. Note that, as in case when you save changes to the host name information, you may need to restart your web browser or other software that accesses the Internet, in order for the new disabled state of the host names to become effective.

To return HostName Commander back into the enabled state, choose the Enable command form the taskbar menu. If you have the main window of HostName Commander on the screen, you can also choose the Enable command from the Save Changes menu, to bring the host name information back in the active state. Again, in order for the change to take effect, you may need to restart your web browser.