How to Disable/Enable Use of USB Storage Devices in Windows

 1.         How often in office and home, we desire to lock our USB drives from not being used by the regular circle around to avoid any compromise on data.I m sure its many a time....either we resort to keeping the 3 level regular strong password option or try out some third party USB Blocker option or more simply leave to GOD and trust.But their is a way out from this...and a real easy one to atleast defy the circle with a small trick....it goes this way.....

2.         The situation to block the USB will fall in either of the categories :

(a)        USB storage device is not installed in system

(b)        USB storage device is already installed in system

CASE -1 : USB STORAGE DEVICE IS NOT INSTALLED IN SYSTEM

- Type %windir%\inf in Explorer address bar or RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open "inf" folder.

-  Now look for following 2 files:

usbstor.inf

usbstor.pnf

3. Now to change their user permissions setting Right-click on each file and select "Properties". Goto "Security" tab and select the desired user or group in "Group or user names" list which you want to restrict from using USB drives. Now in "Permissions for Users" list, click on "Deny" checkbox next to "Full control" option and then click on OK.

 NOTE : - In Windows Vista, click on "Edit" button after selecting the user or group in "Group or user names" list and then again select the same user or group in new dialog box. Now you can click on "Deny" checkbox.

4. That's it. Now users will not be able to install any USB storage device in system.

CASE 2 : IF THE USB STORAGE DEVICE IS ALREADY INSTALLED IN SYSTEM

5.    Type regedit in the run taskbar and reach at :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

6. In right-side pane, change value of "Start" to 4

7. Now whenever a user will attach a USB storage device which is already installed in system, Windows will not detect it and it'll not be shown in My Computer.

NOTE: If you want to revert it back to default, then change the value of "Start" to 3.