In Windows, there’s a hosts file mapping IP addresses to hostnames. For some weird reason, it’s in the arbitrary location of c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. This kinda reminds me of a Unix/Linux path, with the \etc\hosts. But anyway. That’s often too much to type in when just trying to go Start -> Run -> notepad++ hosts. So, use symbolic links :) Something else that is Unix/Linux like, that not many people know exist on Windows:
C:\> mklink hosts c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
symbolic link created for hosts <<===>> c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Then you can just say notepad++ \hosts.
Much easier.