Is a computer restart needed after editing “hosts” file in Windows?

Question:

I have a few computers down at my workplace – most of them are still running Windows XP Pro, while others got new computers that have Windows 7 on it.

My question is that I have a few people who utilise Internet Explorer 8 and they visit certain websites to do a lot of heavy usage of uploading. I was assigned an address (IP address and web address) that needs to be placed on the “hosts” file.

After editing the hosts file, do you think it’s absolutely necessary to perform a computer restart after editing the “hosts” file or should I do a ipconfig /flushdns command to reflect the new settings? Any other suggestions?

Answer:

When I edit my hosts file when I’m moving from one web hosting company to another, all I do is restart the browser and the change takes effect. There is no need to restart your computer.