You can edit the hosts file with any text editor. There are a variety available, but both Windows 10 and 11 come with Notepad ...

The Windows Hosts file is a text file that contains Internet Protocol addresses and their domain hostnames. Similar to an address or telephone book, Windows refers to the Hosts file before it checks ...

When it's enabled, trying to hit "production.server.com" adds a second entry to the DNS resolver cache, one with the real IP address of the production server, in addition to the entry I listed above ...