How to Run Notepad as Admin to Edit System Files without Errors

Recently I was trying to modify one of my system files on Windows and I ran across few obstructions. I was logged in to my machine as the administrator and navigated to the file location. Then I opened it with Notepad, made few changes and tried saving it. I got an error message.


I had no clue why that should happen because (as I already said) I was logged in as the administrator. It looks like Notepad also has to be run as an administrator if you wish to make changes to a system file. So, here’s what solves the problem.

1: Search for Notepad from the Start menu or navigate to a place where you might have pinned it. Right-click on the .exe and choose to Run as administrator.

2: Open the desired system file from this instance of Notepad by using Ctrl+O (for me it was my Hosts file), make your changes and hit Ctrl + S.

Your changes should save without any error or problem. Hope that helps.