Sometimes you need a quick and dirty fix. That quick and dirty fix might be to set the host(s) file via Intune on a Windows 10/11 machine.
I needed that fix. So, I used a remediation to do so. It is quite an easy solution. It uses a detection and a remediation script.
Save these 2 scripts as .ps1 files, we need them later.
This is the detection script:
Start-Transcript -Path C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs\Edithostfile_detect.log -Append
$Records = @(
"10.10.50.134 test.local"
"10.10.50.135 test.tech"
)
$HostFileContent = Get-Content -Path C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts | Where-Object {$_ -notmatch "^#"}
foreach ($Record in $Records) {
Write-Output "Checking if Hostfile contains record: $Record"
If ($HostFileContent -notcontains $Record){
Write-Output "Host $Record doesn't exist, exiting script with code 1"
Exit 1
}
else {
Write-Output "Host $Record already exists in Hostfile"
}
}
Stop-Transcript
This is the remediation script:
Start-Transcript -Path C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs\Edithostfile_remediate.log -Append
$Records = @(
"10.10.50.134 test.local"
"10.10.50.135 test.tech"
)
Set-Content -Path "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts" -Value $Records
Stop-Transcript
If you want more hosts in the file. Just add them to the $Records array.
After that, we create the remediation in Microsoft Intune. Go to the Intune portal.
Next, go to Devices and Script and remediations:
Create a new script package:
Set a name and click next:
Add the files we saved earlier in the Detection script file and the Remediation script file.
Set the script to run in 64-bit PowerShell:
(Set the scope tags if you like)
Assign it to a group and for testing purposes I set it to run each hour.
Click Review & Create to save the script package.
Testing
The script logs to the C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\IntuneManagementExtension\Logs\ directory:
The detect log shows that at first the records are not found in the hosts file:
Then the remediation script runs and after that, the detection script runs again:
That’s how you set a host(s) file via Intune.
It also allows you to update it dynamically since you can update the $Records array in the PowerShell script.