How To Disable Writing to USB Drives

09/06/2011 21:45

A major concern at organizations is allowing users to plug in a usb flash drive, because they could so
easily copy corporate data. Since Windows XP SP2, you can disable writing to USB devices
altogether using a simple registry hack. However one should also note that if you are using
this trick, you should make sure that the users are not administrators on the computer, because
they could easily change this setting back.
Here it is:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
"WriteProtect"=dword:00000001

Paste the code into a notepad file,and then save it as a registry file(file.reg).
Double click it and voila,you have successfully prevented the write access to the USB drive.
Once you have double clicked the registry, you will have to reboot for the changes to take
effect. This works on Windows Vista as well.

If you want to enable the write access again,then copy this code and paste the code into a
notepad file,and then save it as a registry file.Double click it and write access will be enabled
again.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
"WriteProtect"=dword:00000000'

thats it.

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