I have made this batch script which will allow the user to enter a website’s URL as well as a time in minutes, it then adds the URL to the hosts file and removes it once the time expires. (Effectively blocking a website for a certain amount of time)
It removes the website from the hosts file by creating another batch file when it is first run, and then uses the AT command to launch the new batch file at the specified time. It works when blocking multiple websites, the only problem is if more then one website is set to become unblocked at the same time, the unblocking process of each new batch file which was created seems to conflict. As you will see, I have attempted to fix this by delaying a batch file from running until the other has completed. Unfortunately it does not work most of the time. Sometimes if the timing is lucky then both batch files will execute without interfering with one another. Here’s the code, sorry for my terrible coding techniques, it may seem hard to understand:
@echo off
TITLE Site Blocker
SET name=%random%
SET /P url=Enter website (e.g. www.facebook.com)-
SET /P mins=How many minutes do you want to block it for?:
GOTO :SET
:BACK
AT %hh%:%mm% C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo. >> C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
echo 127.0.0.1 %url% >> C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
echo :TOP >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo IF EXIST C:\Users\Downloads\temp1.txt GOTO :WAIT >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo echo DONT DELETE ^>^> C:\Users\Downloads\temp1.txt >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo find /v "%url%" ^< C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts ^> C:\Users\%username%\desktop\temp.txt >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo del C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\hosts /Q >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo ren C:\Users\%username%\desktop\temp.txt hosts >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo copy C:\Users\%username%\desktop\hosts C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc\ >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo del C:\Users\%username%\desktop\hosts /Q >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo msg * %url% unblocked >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo del C:\Users\Downloads\temp1.txt /Q >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo del C:\users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat /Q >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo exit >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo :WAIT >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo timeout 3 >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
echo GOTO :TOP >> C:\Users\%username%\downloads\%name%.bat
exit
:SET
set /a mm=%time:~3,2%
set /a hh=%time:~0,2%
if %mm% gtr 60 GOTO :CHECK
set /a mm=%mm%+%mins%
:DONE
if %mm% gtr 60 GOTO :CHECK
if %mm%==60 set /a hh=%hh%+1 & set /a mm=00
GOTO :BACK
exit
:CHECK
if %mm% gtr 60 set /a hh=%hh%+1
if %mm% gtr 60 set /a mm=%mm%-60 & GOTO :DONE
GOTO :DONE
(The program must be run as administrator to work. I therefore compile it to .exe and add an administrator manifest. Compiling to .exe is not the problem though as I have the same problem when running the batch or the compiled .exe)
I had a little bit of fun with this… and since you didn’t mark any answer yet I thought you might like to see it. It seems like your major problem is you want to be able to block multiple websites and have them unblock at the same time correct?
Using your method I modified it with a dynamic looping batch that would allow you to add as many websites to temporarily ban as you want. that way only one batch is accessing the hosts file at a time. It also cleans up everything it creates before getting rid of itself. Hope this helps:
Also… I used schtasks instead of AT so that I could easily find the task after and delete it, since it allows you to apply unique names instead of going from an assigned ID number.