I'm looking for a way to block all subsites for the Softonic website. For example: If I Google search for Avast, I receive several websites that offer that program including "avast.en.softonic.c**." I want to block all subsites that use Softonic and other websites I deem bothersome. Is there a way to do this using the host file or a firewall that allows variables to be used in site blocking? Thanks
You could do this via hosts yes. Try searching "windows configure hosts file" in google. You can also do this in browser with addons. If you're wanting to block access to the site you could add softonic to a custom adblock list with software like uBlock Origin. Softonic is likely blocked by some of the default lists (it is in uMatrix) so you may not have to add your own. If you're wanting to block the results appearing in google search engine that's a little harder. Google search operators can help, e.g. searching for: 'avast -softonic' would filter out all results that contain the word softonic. Alternatively you may be able to use an addon like greasemonkey to filter results for you by either appending "-softonic" to your searches or hiding softonic results altogether. Most firewalls block via IP so aren't good for domain based blocking.