Disabling USB flash drive use via group policy
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Carlosdl
29855 pts.
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Q:
Disabling USB flash drive use via group policy
Group Policy, USB Flash drives, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Security
Do you know of a way to effectively disable USB flash drives while permitting other USB devices on client computers through a group policy ?

Our systems administrator has tried a couple of alternatives, but some of them completely disable the USB ports, and others just block some specific types or models of flash drives.

The servers are running Windows Server 2003, and the clients are XP and Vista.

Thanks,
ASKED: Apr 30 2009  6:07 PM GMT
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Petermasamba
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Hi Carlos, this post on Petri's site is a step by step guide to do it.


Hi Sir,

It didnt work for me..i have not seen Custom Policy Settings>Restrict Drives in my GPO

Hope you help me with this...

Thanks

It’s possible to simply disable USB ports support in PC BIOS in order to prevent and forbid computer user from
using USB removable flash drive or mass storage device (portable hard disk drive) to copy and transfer data and
files. However, disabling USB ports totally also shutdown the ability for system to use USB based keyboard,
mouse, webcam, printer, scanner and etc, which has become a common connectivity norm in modern computer.
As a workaround, use the following registry hack to stop USB Mass Storage Device drivers from starting when
the system boots up.
Run Registry 1. Editor (regedit).
Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
2.
3. In the right pane, double click on the Start value name.
Storage Economics Paper
IDC Paper- Drive Down Overall Cost of
Storage Infrastructure.
www.HDS.com
FTDI Embedded USB Host IC
Vinculum - new range of easy to use USB
Host Chips from FTDI
www.Vinculum.com
Disable USB Removable Mass Storage Device Drive Access in Windows... http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/26/disable-usb-removable-mass-s...
1 of 12 5/13/2009 9:39 AM
Change the value data to 4 to disable the removable USB mass storage 4. device drive access.
To revert and re-enable the drive access for removable USB mass storage device driver, change back the
value data for Start to its original default of 3
Last Answered: May 14 2009  7:42 PM GMT by Petermasamba   30 pts.
Latest Contributors: Admin89   85 pts., Alessandro.panzetta   9615 pts.
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Carlosdl   29855 pts.  |   Apr 30 2009  7:21PM GMT

Thanks Alessandro.

We will give it a try.

 

Topics about Flash » Disabling USB flash drive use via group policy   0 pts.  |   Apr 30 2009  9:58PM GMT

[...] Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) put an intriguing blog post on Disabling USB flash drive use via group policyHere’s a quick excerptNew Question Created… [...]

 
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