Protect or Deny Access to your USB Drives

The most common removable device through which viruses spreads into Computers these days is Pen drive or USB flash drive, Windows Autorun gives the possibility for these viruses to easily enter into users Computers which is not a surprise- that’s why it is recommended to disable autorun functionality in Windows for removable drives. There are several freeware portable utilities available on internet to write protect USB drives and further prevent autorun viruses execution, meet USB Disk Manager, a freeware utility offers more than what you want to control your USB drives and protect your system from viruses in it.

Disabling Autorun in Windows is a step forward in stopping these devices trying to infect a machine as soon as it gets plugged in. Along with the security aspect, there are many times when you just don’t want anything on the USB drive to be deleted, moved or even executed. There are some sticks that come with a write lock but you pay a premium for the function. Using an SD card with a lock and an adapter is also an option which is what I use myself when needing to transfer files to another computer.

There is a small utility that can write protect any USB storage devices when plugged into your PC so there can’t be any unauthorised access. The program is called USB Disk Manager and along with write protecting your drive, has a few more features that may be useful if you want more protection from USB threats.

Other things it is able to do include blocking any executable file running itself from the USB device, meaning no virus that spreads itself this way can run. Another feature is being able to completely block read or write access on USB removable disks so any kind of file transfer is not possible.

The program is portable so simply download and extract it to your chosen location, and open the USB Disk Manager.exe (you may have to right click and ‘Run as Administrator’). If the program has not popped its window into view, click on the icon in the system tray.

Write Protect USB Drives with USB Disk Manager

You can turn on write protection for removable disks where you can restrict the applications to only read files from the pen drives. You can turn write protection off from USB Disk Manager preferences.

Deny Software execution from USB drives

You can able to prevent spread of viruses though USB disks by selecting ‘software execution Denied “option from the program window (by default Software execution is Allowed option is set) so that no application or program doesn’t run from the device.

Disable /enable USB removable disks: you can disable all your flash drives to disallow read and write on the USB removal disks, enabling this setting also prevents the transfer of files to and from the USB drive to your system.

USB Disk Manager offers read and write protection to the USB drive that is connected to the system that’s running the program, what if you want these features for USB drives when connected to systems in cybercafé or in your friend’s house, USBDM offers option to “automatically copy this application to USB disks as Autorun in its settings which you can enable and this program will be autorun on new machine.

After enabling any above of the options you may need to reconnect your pen drive or restart your System for changes to take effect.

USB Disk Manager is compatible with XP, Vista and 7 32 & 64bit
Website

Download