Prevent copying of files to USB drive By Ajith | Published: March 4, 2008 There are times when you want

to prevent others from copying your data but you still need them to be able to view it on your computer. The following tip will help you do exactly that. As always it is the registry that comes to your rescue. Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit in RUN (WIN+R) dialog (more keyboard shortcuts). Go to th key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Create a new DWORD named WriteProtect (Right Click on right pane and select NewDWORD). Edit the value and make it 1. Just restart Windows explorer and you are done. Next time somebody tries to copy data to the external storage device they will see If you need to copy something just make the stored value of WriteProtect to 0 **Tips : to restart Windows Explorer take Shutdown. Click Cancel while holding down SHIFT+CTRL+ALT, this will close Windows Explorer. Now take TASK MANAGER by pressing ALT+CTRL+DEL take File>>New Task>> [ explorer ] and press Enter. ** Some related articles you may like : 1.View system files (super hidden) in Explorer 2.How to prevent access to select drives using Registry 3.Clear the most recently run commands in Run Box from Registry 4.How to delete undeletable files 5.Prevent system slowdown due to large Host file 6.Add a context menu option to list all files in a folder and save it as text file 7.Keyboard shortcuts for Windows 8.Correction to the list files and folders from a directory to a file This entry was posted in Windows and tagged Admin, Error, File, Registry. Bookmark the permalink. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment. Adsense section targetting for better contextual Ads Find all recently used Wallpapers from your Registry

33 Comments Sandeep Kumar Posted February 4, 2012 at 5:39 PM | Permalink this didnt worked for windows 7. Chintan Shah Posted January 12, 2012 at 4:50 PM | Permalink Hi Does this method will also restrict files being burnt on a cd, or from one drive to the other? I just have one drive on my comp, thus unable to check. Also will this limit us from using a USB printer? U wrote it in 2008, it does work on xp7 have tried it, but have u recently found a better way of doing it. Can we have a password for this, rather than using 0?,s and 1? .. coz we need to use the usb quite some time.. Jayesh Posted November 3, 2011 at 6:00 PM | Permalink Hi, I want security like this Owner is able to copy/paste/delete file from PC but when other user comes and try to to delete something OR copy data to USB OR copy data from USB to PC then its not permitted to do so. Anyone have idea? Thanks Jayesh Ajith

Posted December 26, 2010 at 5:38 PM | Permalink Right now, I do not have any clue on how to do it. I am trying to find it Deepak Posted September 19, 2010 at 4:49 PM | Permalink This will prevent people from copying files from HDD to USB. But i want that users is not able to do copying files from USB to HDD. Can You Help me for this .. superbuch Posted June 10, 2010 at 5:29 PM | Permalink can we make a file un-copy-able? if yes how? Ajith Posted March 7, 2010 at 1:14 AM | Permalink Hi Iqbal, Thanks a lot for visiting my blog man. I have tried the above mentioned trick on Vista and seems to work. So it would probably work with Windows7. Also there is an application named Prevent that can be used to prevent copying to USB drives. It works with Win7. I havent used the application. I will test the trick on Win7 in a couple of days and leave you a reply. Iqbal Posted March 1, 2010 at 8:00 PM | Permalink Hi Ajith, think your amazing mate! My problem is that I want to try this in Windows 7, will the instructions you gave still be the same? Thank you.

Ajith Posted February 25, 2010 at 11:30 PM | Permalink Ill check soon and reply. Sandy Posted December 7, 2009 at 6:49 AM | Permalink Hi, i would like to know if this works in vista, because I tried it and I dont know if I did something wrong or if It doesnt work in vista. Thank you for your time Ajith Posted August 28, 2009 at 6:54 PM | Permalink Hi Roger, The files from USB can be copied to the HDD. The second thing cant exactly be done using the default XP utilities. yOu might need some other software to do so. Because you can lock reading a file. And copying is similar to reading. Roger Posted August 20, 2009 at 7:41 AM | Permalink Hi Ajith, This will prevent people from copying files from HDD to USB. But can files from USB be copied to HDD? And is there anyway that you know of that prevents people from copying a certain files only (only allows them to view from the pc).

Ajith Posted July 18, 2009 at 3:44 PM | Permalink Hi Jo2xflash, thanks for coming to my blog. Please subscribe to the full RSS feed [http://www.exnol.com/feed] so that you can read the future posts right at your desktop. jon2xflash Posted July 17, 2009 at 12:55 PM | Permalink thanks you helped me alot. god bless you i have solved my problem with my roommate that keeps copying my privatefile from my machine Ajith Posted May 9, 2009 at 9:50 PM | Permalink Hector, you can create these Keys on your own. Also try creating the key under HKCU instead of HKLM Hector Posted April 26, 2009 at 3:13 AM | Permalink Hi.. I have Windows XP but when I open the Registry Editor cannot find the StorageDevicePolicies folder; although the others (e.g. system resources) are shown. Any comments on how to avoid someone to copy my files to a DVD and/or USB? .. Thanks Ajith

Posted October 16, 2008 at 7:22 PM | Permalink Please put your real email if you like to get replies to your mail also Ajith Posted October 16, 2008 at 7:19 PM | Permalink Hi G O please try the method mentioned here http://www.exnol.com/windows/get-access-to-all-folders-in-windows-like-linux You can also use this method to prevent access to a folder Please contact me if you have any problem with this method G.O Posted October 16, 2008 at 4:38 PM | Permalink can we apply this to individual folders? G.O Posted October 16, 2008 at 4:37 PM | Permalink any lock on vista (no pun intended); should work tho since vista is just an XP SP4 my hdd is basically a server for all the lazy guys who come to rip me off my hard days job downloading all kinds of stuff. Ajith Posted September 17, 2008 at 11:28 AM | Permalink Hi Rajat.. Can you send me some screen shots of errors shown when you try to sopy something from USB. Send them to ajithonly at gmail.com

rajat Posted September 16, 2008 at 5:59 PM | Permalink ajith,you are supercool mate.My problem is that somebody has restricted copying of files from my dvd drive and from usb drives.please help me . Ajith Posted August 17, 2008 at 11:23 AM | Permalink Well Anand it is real hard to find out something for 2000. I couldnt even get my hands on one 2000 machine yet sorry S Anand Posted August 14, 2008 at 10:24 AM | Permalink Dear Ajith: Any Luck? Tried few tricks it did not work. Regards, Anand S Anand Posted August 7, 2008 at 9:55 AM | Permalink Hi Ajith: Just following on the Win2K disabling? S Anand Posted August 1, 2008 at 12:12 PM | Permalink Hi Ajith: any Luck?

Ajith Posted July 28, 2008 at 2:06 PM | Permalink Hi Anand.. Good news and bad news.. I found a way.. but I couldnt try it on any Win 2000 system.. The method is through management of removable devices.. I will post about it tomorrow.. S Anand Posted July 28, 2008 at 1:08 PM | Permalink Hello Ajith: Any good news! Anand Posted July 22, 2008 at 4:50 PM | Permalink Hi Ajith, Thanks for the quick reply, i will await your response with respect to win2k tweaking. Regards, Anand Ajith Posted July 22, 2008 at 4:15 PM | Permalink Hi Anand, thanks for the comment. I havent seen a system with Windows 2000 in ages since I am a student. So I do not have a clear cut solution. Although I tried searching.. I couldnt find it. But, I will try to get you an answer by this week. So dont be disappointed. BTW please try the following method I had posted earlier. Setting Access permission to folders in Windows Linux style

Anand Posted July 22, 2008 at 1:23 PM | Permalink Hi, this key works fine in XP PRO, but how do i make this work in windows2000 professional Ajith Posted March 31, 2008 at 10:07 AM | Permalink Hi Vishwa, as far as data copying is concerned I cannot tell any specific ways. The only thing practical is disable USB from hardware manager. Or there is an option to disable drives from registry. Please read this to know how to prevent access to drives in Registry. vishwa Posted March 27, 2008 at 12:19 PM | Permalink You helped me a lot through this code, Could you please tell me the thing that how can i prevent copy even from the USB. Thnx

Post a Comment Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are