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How to block USB sticks and USB storage devices in Windows

 

The best way to block USB sticks and USB storage devices in Windows can be read in this article. You can block them, disable or password protect your usb ports. I know that there are probably hundreds of articles and tutorial on how to block USB or how to disable USB etc. Most of them are so complicated and I a assure you that it's not a solution to disable the entire USB devices, you need a smarter solution, something that can run under your control and something that can be used easily. When I said USB sticks I was referring specifically at USB drives stylish, compact, and reliable, making them ideal for transporting music, digital images, presentations etc. Most of them are small and supports USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 standars. When I said USB storage device I was thinking at bigger USB devices like the external HDD ( external hard-drives ) which usually can handle hundreds of GB or even TerraBytes of data. It doesn't matter what kind of USB device is going to access your USB ports from your computer running a Windows version since all of them can be blocked. How ? You will need a small program called MyUSBonly, which is so simple to install, use and configure that almost anybody can use it. It has some powerful features that will "prevent data theft by blocking all but your trusted USB storage devices" and it will allow you ( if you want ) to "log all USB connect, disconnect and files/folders copied, modified, deleted activity ", to run it in an invisible mode and it can even e-mail you anything that happens with your USB. That being said, let's start to see what MyUSBonly can do for you and your PC. First, you will need to download MyUSBonly here and save it on your computer. Then, locate the path to where you saved the setup file ( it should be called MyUSBonly_setup.exe or MyUSBonly_setup.msi ) and make sure to open it. You should see a new opened window ( like in this picture ) and you should click on the "Next" button in order to install MyUSBonly on your computer :

 

 

Make sure to read the entire "license Agreement" terms and choose "I accept the terms in the license Agreement" and click on the "Next" button to continue with the installation.

 

 

Now it's time to enter a license key if you have one or leave it as it is in the following picture. Remember that this application is fully functional for a 27 day limit. Choose the "Next" button to continue with the installation.

 

 

This is the final step, if you want to install MyUSBonly, choose the "Install" button and the program will start the installation.

 

 

If the installation was successfull, you should see a similar window ( like in the following picture ) which shows you that MyUSBonly will run in your desktop taskbar :

 

That's it, this was the entire installation process, so easy and fast. Now let's take a look and see what this program can do. First, make sure to do a right-click with your mouse on MyUSBonly that runs in your desktop taskbar and you should see a small window, make sure to click on "General Setup" :

 

 

Opening or better said accessing MyUSBonly for the first time, it will require you to enter a password ( the default password is '0000' - four of zeros ) which you can change it anytime after logging in to MyUSBonly program interface.

 

 

This is the program interface which allows you to change your password ( we recommend you to change the default password ) to a more, complicated password ( make sure to remember the password ), if you're finding hard to remember your password, you could use the best password manager ( it's free ).

 

 

Now, let's configure MyUSBonly supposing that you've already changed the default password. I am not going to show you how to configure "Notification Setup" window, you can configure it at a later time so let's skip this step. It is not the purpose of this article. Let's see how we can block a USB device and also how to allow a USB device ( also known as the process of adding a USB device to Whitelist ). It is recommended to disable the auto-run or auto-play features in Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating system if you are using a U3 USB smart drive (U3 Launchpad emulates itself as a virtual CD drive in the Windows operating system and uses the built-in Autorun and AutoPlay features in Windows to start the U3 Launch automatically.). To do this, click on the "Device Whitelist" ( option located on the left side of the program interface ) and you should see a picture like this one :

 

 

Now, make sure to connect a USB stick or USB external hard drive or any other USB storage device on one of your USB ports. As soon as you will connect it to your computer, you should see a similar window like this one that prevents this USB device from connecting to your computer and it will require a password - make sure to enter your password and click on "Allow" button.

 

 

Supposing that this device is one that you trust and you don't want your computer to require a password each time that you're connecting this USB device, you will need to add this USB device to a whitelist. To do so, go back to program interface, on the "Device Whitelist" section and press on the "Start Detect" button and then press on "Detect" button. You should see the connected USB on that window, click on the "Add to Whitelist", click on the "Save" button to save this configuration and it should be added to whitelist section and next time when you will connect this device it will not prompt for a password, see the following pictures :

 

Step 1 - click on the "Start Detect" button, the application is going to look for a USB connected to your USB device :

 

 

Step 2 - Plug flash drive into your USB port and press "Detect" button. If it's already plugged make sure to press "Detect" button, it will recognize it anyway.

 

 

Step 3 - Add USB device to Whitelist : once that the flash drive is being detected it will be listed, make sure to select it and press the "Add to Whitelist" button and it should be added to whitelist section. Press on the "Save" button to save changes.

 

 

If you will click on the "Device Usage Log" located on the left side - under the "Device Whitelist", you should see the log with devices that has been inserted and removed on your computer.

 

 

That's it, now you know how to use MyUSBonly, it's really simple, however I would highly recommend you for highest security to avoid using whitelist option. If a bad person would want to steal data from your computer using your USB devices with a regular flash drive he would not be able to do this without using your own USB drive added to your whitelist. So it's safer to enter a password each time when you want to connect a USB to one of your USB ports. Also, if your computer is being compromised, I mean if somebody has installed a keylogger or a trojan that can steal all typed passwords on your system, that makes MyUSBonly or any other application useless since a bad person could use your own password each time he needs to connect a flash drive into your USB device. If you know for sure that your computer is secured and protected ( best method is to use a good antivirus that is also password-protected and that doesn't allow any keylogger, trojan to install on your system ) then MyUSBonly is the best USB security solution as a software. As a conclusion, it's better and more productive to avoid to disable USB devices for a company that still needs to use USB devices from time to time ( for highest security I would recommend to use computers that comes without USB ports ). If all you need to do is to block USB sticks and USB storage devices in Windows - MyUSBonly is the best solution since it's giving you the control over your USB devices.