It is easy to lock a machine down, disable the floppy, and cdrom in the bios. Many times when you try to disable USB - you disables it entirely, and not only removable storage devices.
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.
CAUTION: We strongly recommend that you back up the registry before you make any changes to it. Incorrect changes to the registry can result in permanent data loss or corrupted files. Modify only the keys that are specified. Read the document
How to make a backup of the Windows registry for instructions.
Click on
START > RUN and type
regedit
Then click on
Ok button.
The
Registry Editor, will be appeared.
In the left pane of the
Registry Editor, navigate to the following subkey (making double click on each registry key):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
USBSTOR
Now, in the right pane of the
Registry Editor locate and make double click on the following registry subkey named
Start
A new window will be appeared.
Modify the value in the field named
Value data (by default is 3).
Set the value data for this subkey to:
4 (read FOUR) to disable USB storage devices;
3 (read THREE) to enable USB storage devices.
Then click on
Ok button.
Exit the Registry Editor.
Restart the computer.
For those of you that don’t feel like messing around in the registry, there is a freeware software called
IntelliAdmin USB Drive Disabler that does the registry modification above by just clicking a button.
See also
Disable write access usb devices