Two options are given below. One for Disabling USB drives completely and the other option is for disabling only write access to USB drives, however you can read from USB drives.

OPTION 1: Disabling USB storage completely. No USB drives can be accessed from your PC.

Click start. Type regedit.

Scroll down to HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\USBStor.

In the right pane click on start and change value of 3 (default) to 4.

Close regedit.

Now, no USB drives can be accessed on your PC. To re-enable USB drives, change the value back to 3. This only disables mass storage USB drives and not the USB keyboard/mouse/printers.

The same can be done automatically by creating a script file as under:

Open notepad. Type the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\USBSTOR]

“Start”=dword:00000003

Save this file as a .reg file. You may name it as EnableUSB.reg

Now again open note pad and type the same lines but change the start value to 00000004.

Save the file as DisableUSB.reg

Now you have two files – one for enabling and other for disabling USB drives. By simply double clicking on the files, you can enable/disable access to USB drives.

Remember to restart PC after executing the file.

OPTION 2: Disabling only write access to the pen drive. You can read from the pen drive, but not write to it.

The same can be done automatically by creating a script file as under:

Open notepad. Type the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]

“WriteProtect”=dword:00000000

Save this file as a .reg file. You may name it as EnableUSBWrite.reg

Now again open note pad and type the same lines but change the WriteProtect value to 00000001.

Save the file as DisableUSBWrite.reg

Now you have two files – one for enabling and other for disabling USB write access. By simply double clicking on the files, you can enable/disable write access to USB drives. You can install USB drives and read data from it, but you cannot copy anything to it.

Remember to restart PC after executing the file.

Even after disabling USB drivers, if drivers are automatically loaded when a user plugs in a USB drive, the same can be disabled in the following method:

Go to Control panel – Folder options – View – Enable show hidden files and folders.

Open C:\Windows\Inf\USBStor.inf. Right click USBStor.inf – go to security tab – Remove all users from the ACL of this file except Administrator. Save changes. Now when a normal user plugs a USB drive, the device drivers will not be automatically loaded.