Generally you'd prefer to have it work just the way it does now (specify your DNN alias as part of the URL).  This keeps things easy when you set up multiple DNN installations (say, to test different versions of DNN) as well as other websites/frameworks.  If you want a simple way to jump directly to a particular local website you can set up a regular website bookmark to that site - easy!

If you REALLY want to default "http://LOCALHOST" to a specific DNN installation then that will probably have to be configured within your web hosting software (IIS, Apache, etc.).

Hope this helped (or at least helped you to formulate some follow-up questions...)
-mamlin

If you are using a Windows based pc, I assume that your DNN installation has been setup as a Virtual Directory in IIS.

To have your DNN site appear on Localhost, and not localhost/dotnetnuke, all you have to do is.

1. Open IIS.

2. Right click on "Default Website" and select "Properties"

3. select the "Home Directory" tab

4. in the "local Path" field, click "Browse.." and select you DNN root folder.

After this make sure that your "Directory Security" settings, your "ASP.NET" settings and your "document" settings are similar to that of your original dnn installation.

Feel free to ask if you have more questions.