Jun 24, 2007

Disable usb flash drives



Once in a while I have a friend, or customer that needs to keep people from using the USB ports to copy data off of a system.

It is easy to lock a machine down, disable the floppy, and cdrom in the bios. Many times when you try to disable USB - it disables it entirely.

This can be a real pain on newer laptops or systems that don't even have a PS2 interface for the mouse or keyboard.

There is a simple registry change that will keep the USB storage drivers from starting when the system boots. Keeps people from walking up to a PC and copying data off with a USB key, but allows you to keep your scanner, keyboard, and mouse working.

As always - back your system up before messing around in the registry.

Just open regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

Notice the value 'Start'

Switch this value to 4, and USB storage devices are disabled.

Switch this value to 3, and USB storage devices are enabled.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I changed the number from 3 to 4 but the use still enabled. tell me any other method. because i do not want to disable usb ports.

Print DVD Covers said...

Hello all,

There are plenty of reasons to disable USB drives on a home or public computer. Disabling USB drives can help protect your computer if there are multiple users, save computer resources and keep distracted workers on task in the office. Disabling USB drives on your computer is a very simple process and it is reversible. Thanks a lot!