SysMate Hosts File Walker is a freeware to edit or modify the hosts file in Windows. With Host File Walker you can add as many records to system hosts file.

Starting at the end of July, Microsoft has begun detecting HOSTS files that block Windows 10 telemetry servers as a 'Severe' security risk.

When I googled "Windows 2003 host file ignored", something popped up about DnsNbtLookupOrder which was no help.