We prohibit users from using USB flash drives. Disabling USB ports on your computer

I already told you how disable touchpad or webcam on a laptop, keyboard and mouse... today we will talk about how to disable usb ports on any computer. This can protect your data from theft or prevent your computer from being infected using a flash drive.

Easily and simply disable USB ports

Simple and free computer program USB Ports Disabler does not do anything special - it only allows, without delving into the jungle of the operating system, to disable and enable the USBSTOR service, which is responsible for the operation of all USB ports on the computer, with one click of the mouse.

When this service is deactivated, the system stops seeing them - this is convenient to use for security purposes. In this simple way, we will close the loophole for introducing viruses into a computer using external media and at the same time prevent the possibility of stealing (copying) our data from it.

What I liked most about this program is that it disables USB ports only for external storage media (flash drives, disks, third-party drives...), and things such as a USB adapter wireless mouse, continues to define itself and work - great.

So, launch USB Ports Disabler and click on the button labeled “Disable USB”...

...we agree to disable the USB ports (if I were the author of the program, I would remove the second window - why is this intermediate confirmation?) ...

That's it - the ports are disabled. The manufacturer recommends rebooting the system, but this is not necessary, as I have seen. If, when you disconnected the ports, you had a flash drive sticking out in one of them, then you are not surprised that it continues to be detected - remove it from the port and try to connect it again... that’s all, the computer no longer sees it.

So that the computer can see the light again and be able to determine external media information, just click on the second button in the main program window - “Enable USB”.

I don’t recommend clicking the rightmost button with the inscription “Hide IP Address” - you will be redirected to the browser, to the page of some VPN service. Apparently the author earns money this way—let’s not blame him for that. There are others to hide the IP address free and reliable methods.

Download USB Ports Disabler

On official page USB programs Ports Disabler You will find two buttons with links to download the regular and portable versions...

They weigh a little more than 1 MB each. The program works wonderfully in all operating systems Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32\64-bit)).

To new useful and interesting computer programs.

Do you want to protect the data on your computer under Windows control 10 by blocking or disabling USB drives on your PC? In this guide we'll look at five simple ways Enable or disable USB drives in Windows 10.

Blocking USB drives in Windows 10 can be done in different ways. You can use the Registry, BIOS or third party utilities to enable or disable USB storage devices in Windows system 10.

Below are five ways to enable or disable USB drives in Windows 10.

Method 1 of 5

Enable or disable USB drives in Windows 10 using the registry

If you're comfortable making changes to the Windows registry, you can enable or disable USB drives in Windows 10 by manually editing the registry. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Open Registry Editor

Step 2: Continue to the next section:

Step 3: Now on the right side double click on the option "Start" and change its value to 4 to disable USB drives on your Windows 10 PC. Change the Start value to 3 to enable USB drives and storage devices on your PC.

Method 2 of 5

Enable or disable USB ports through Device Manager

Did you know that you can disable all USB ports using Device Manager? By disabling USB ports, you prevent users from using USB ports to connect USB drives to your computer.

When you disable USB ports, the USBs on your PC will not work and hence no one will be able to connect USB drives. You will need to re-enable the USB ports to connect devices via USB. Here's how to enable or disable USB ports using Device Manager.

Step 1: Right click on the button "Start" on the taskbar and select .

Step 2: Expand USB controllers . Right-click on all the entries one by one, and click "Disable device". Click "Yes" when you see a confirmation dialog.

Method 3 of 5

Use USB Drive Disabler to enable or disable USB drives

If you don't want to edit the registry manually, you can use free tool called USB Drive Disabler For quick start or disabling USB drives on your PC. Simply download USB Disabler, launch it, and then select Enable USB Drives or Disable USB Drives to enable or disable USB drives on your PC.

Method 4 of 5

Disable or enable USB ports in BIOS

Some manufacturers offer an option in the BIOS/UEFI to disable or enable USB ports. Boot into BIOS/UEFI and check if there is an option to disable or enable USB ports. Check your PC's user manual to see if there is an option to enable or disable USB ports in the BIOS/UEFI.

Method 5 out of 5

Enabling or disabling USB storage devices USB Guard

Nomesoft USB Guard- one more free utility to block USB drives on computers running Windows 10 and above earlier versions Windows. You must use this program as an administrator to enable or disable USB storage devices.

Protection from USB recording disks - can be useful as additional option security.

First, you need to figure out why you might need to disable USB ports on the computer. Everything is quite simple here. With the advent of miniature data storage devices operating via USB, a need arose to prevent data leakage from computers. Using a regular flash drive or portable hard drive, you can easily steal any information. To prevent such incidents, it is necessary to completely disable USB ports. Of course, everyone may have their own reasons for disabling ports, but this is not so important. Below are several ways to disable USB ports on your computer.

Disable USB ports in BIOS settings

In fact, everything is quite simple: go to BIOS settings and disable all ports, or those that are necessary. The nuance is that on at the moment there are several BIOS versions’ah, and disabling ports in each is sometimes different.

BIOS Award. Go to the BIOS settings and select the item Integrated Peripherals. Let's go to this menu. Next, we simply find the points: USB EHCI Controller, USB Keyboard Support, USB Mouse Support and Legacy USB storage detect and disable them by selecting the option Disabled. Then we simply save the settings and restart the computer;

Phoenix Award And AMI BIOS. Go to settings and select the item Advanced (sometimes some versions may have a Peripherals item) or Advanced BIOS Features. Next we go to the menu USB Configuration. Next, turn off all USB items, save the settings and restart the computer;

UEFI. More modern panel. Go to the menu Peripherals or Advanced. Selecting items Legacy USB Support And USB 3.0 Support and turn them off. Next, save the settings and restart the PC.

Note! In some versions, the menu items may have slightly different names, but that's okay, just go through all the menus and find the USB settings.

Disable USB using the registry

This is a more suitable way. You can disable it in the registry USB access ports to specific devices, not the ports themselves. At a time when almost everything is connected via USB, including a mouse and keyboard, this method will be preferable. You can simply disable port access specifically to flash drives, but at the same time computer mouse will work fine.

Open the registry editor: keyboard shortcut Win+R, enter the command regedit and click OK. Next, move on to the next section:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

Find an item Start. Open it and enter the value 4 . Save the settings and restart your computer. This section blocks access of external drives to the port.

Note! If you do not have them installed on your computer USB drivers controller, then the value Start will automatically change to the value 3 as soon as the device is connected to the port.

Disable USB via Device Manager

Open device Manager: right click on My computer, open Properties, further device Manager. Open the menu USB controllers. Right-click and context menu select an item Disable.

Important! The option of removing drivers for USB controllers will not work, since the first time you connect the device to the port, Windows will begin installing the drivers.

Disable USB using Windows files

Denying access using the Local Group Policy Editor

You can also ban reading and writing.

Additionally

It is also worth mentioning that there are two more ways to restrict access to ports: restrict access using third party programs and physically disabling ports.

There is plenty of third-party software on the Internet, and each one is configured differently, so there is no point in describing this method in the article. All you need to do is find the desired program and instructions for it.

As for physical shutdown ports, this method will only work with ports on the front panel of the system unit. Open system unit and carefully disconnect the wires going to the ports.

Bottom line

Whatever the reason for the need to disable USB ports, now you know how to do it.

If the USB ports on your PC are not working and Windows settings and driver updates do not help, perhaps the controller was disabled in the BIOS. In this case, you will need to go to the configuration menu and turn everything back on.

There are many different versions BIOS with its own interfaces and subtleties of operation. Also, a more modern complex can work on your computer - UEFI, which supports a full GUI interface. This article discusses the distributions that are most often installed on motherboards.

Entering BIOS settings

To start changing the configuration, you need to go to the corresponding menu. It can be opened during power on personal computer- before it started Windows boot from the hard drive.

Turn on your PC. In case it is already running: reboot. Wait sound signal speaker: a short single beep indicates that everything is internal components, necessary for the computer to operate, have been detected.

Now you need to click hotkey to call the configuration. This must be done before changing the screen. If you don't have time and Windows starts loading, reboot. The keys depend on the model installed motherboard and versions BIOS firmware. You can find it in the user manual that came with the motherboard, on the manufacturer’s official website, or view on your PC screen when loading it:

If you don't know the board model, it's okay. Just try pressing the following keys: Tab, Delete, Esc, F1, F2, F8, F10, F11, F12. One of them will definitely do.

You don't have to try just 1 option at a time. You can quickly press all the buttons from the list without any problems. One of them will come up and launch the BIOS settings, and the rest will be ignored.

Entering the BIOS/UEFI settings of the latest PCs

Many modern computers boot up so quickly that you won't be able to access the keystrokes when you turn them on. This is also true for laptops. That's why latest versions Windows OS has acquired new feature launch. Let's show it using Windows 8.1 as an example.

Your computer or laptop will reboot into setup mode. After restarting your PC, you will also be able to select option to run from a USB drive or DVD.

Menu navigation

Almost all BIOS versions lack GUI. This means that you will have to work only using the keyboard, as in, for example, Windows console. Navigation is carried out using the up-down and right-left arrows. To open any section, use the Enter key to go back - “Escape”. A small reminder of the keys used is always shown on the screen.

Firmware complex UEFI installed on the most expensive and powerful motherboards. He supports more drivers and can use a mouse. Its interface will be familiar Windows users and other modern operating systems.

Each version has its own interface and sets of options. Even the names of the same parameters may differ. The following article describes several popular BIOS releases.

AMI BIOS

A very common option that can be found on many modern computers. The main menu is divided into 2 parts: a list of categories and various actions, such as exit or save. You will be working on the left side.

You need to go to the section called “ Integrated Peripherals" There is no Russian version of the interface, so all commands are only in English. Use the Down arrow to highlight this item and press Enter.

Here you need to enable ( Enabled) 4 options:

• USB EHCI controller– main controller. If the motherboard has version 3.0 ports, this item will be divided into 2 parts: “Controller” and “Controller 2.0”;
• USB Keyboard Support– keyboard support;
• USB Mouse Support– mouse support;
• – work with external data storage: flash drives, disk drives, disks of smartphones and digital cameras.

In some older versions there are only 2 points " USB controller" And " Legacy USB storage support».

When you are done with the settings, press the F10 key to save changes made and restart your computer.

Phoenix AwardBIOS

Another popular version that can often be found on modern laptops. Doesn't have home page, like AMI, but with convenient thematic tabs at the top. You can move between sections using the left and right arrows, and between items using the up and down arrows.

Go to the section " Advanced» using the Right arrow. In it, find the category “ USB configuration" All items in this section must be moved to the position “ Enabled" In some versions the category " USB configuration" may be located in the " tab Peripherals" and not in "Advanced".

To exit the menu, press F10 and confirm exit.

AMI BIOS for Asus

AMI version used on Asus laptops. Externally it is very similar to Phoenix - a similar bookmarks bar. Settings USB are in the section " Advanced" Go there, enable all options and exit using the F10 button.

UEFI

Contrary to popular belief, UEFI is not part of the BIOS. It can rather be called a more advanced, but less popular competitor. Exists large number different versions, each with its own interfaces. However, here the controls are similar to the usual Windows, so you can easily find the options you need.

Windows Settings

If at the BIOS level all ports and controllers are enabled, but the USB ports still do not work, there may be a problem in the settings of your Windows system.

First, just try disconnect and reconnect the device. This will check if the drivers are correct. If there's something wrong with them, Windows will try to reinstall them.

If nothing happens when you reconnect, try turn on the controller V Windows registry. To do this you need to do the following:

Video: how to configure any BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive

It is recommended to disable USB ports as a precaution, namely when connecting flash drives, external drives or other USB devices with the aim of infecting your computer with all kinds of viruses or stealing data. It is for these reasons that many IT workers in offices and companies block access to them. Without bothering with any programs for these purposes or other settings, they simply disconnect it from the motherboard.

Below I will give some examples with descriptions, how to disable USB ports on a computer.

Disable USB in Bios

We go into Bios; to do this, when turning on or restarting the PC, press the Delete key on the keyboard. Let's go to the Advanced section (Advanced BIOS features), where we are interested in the next option, Legacy USB Support. By default, it has the Enabled position, change it to Disabled.

Save the changed values ​​by pressing the F10 hotkey and exit.

Via the registry

Using +R, open the Run window and enter the Windows command “regedit” (without quotes). In the editor we go along the branch

Microsoft Registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

Find the DWORD parameter “Start” and change its value to “4”.

We reboot by first clicking the “OK” button.

PS: How to enable USB ports? Change the value back to "3".

device Manager

Open the “Start” menu, right-click on “Computer” and go to “Properties”. On the left side of the screen, click on the “Device Manager” link. In the displayed list, look for the “USB Controllers” item, open it and use the mouse to deactivate it.

Going to "Properties".

Then “Drivers” and then click the button shown in the screenshot below.

Removing USB controller drivers

An option that also has a place to be. Simply use a program, for example, CCleaner, to remove drivers from your computer. Downside is that when you restart the PC it will check for the presence of these and install them. Which will again open up access to the ports.

Fix It utility

You can download and at the same time find out how you can use it to deny access by following this link //support.microsoft.com/ru-ru/kb/823732.

Using programs

There are quite a lot of applications, it’s impossible to list them all, but I would like to use one. Its name is USB Ports Disabler. Download from the link. We launch and then everything is intuitive.

First, click the button highlighted in the figure below