Disabling USB storage on a Windows platform

Windows Disabling USB storage on a Windows platform is only a little more complicated:

1. From Explorer's folder options, ensure that hidden files and folders are displayed, file extensions are not hidden, and simple file sharing is disabled.
2. Open up the properties for %systemroot%\Inf\Usbtror.inf (%systemroot% would normally be C:\Windows).
3. Select the Security tab and make sure that all options for all users are set to deny. This must include administrators and SYSTEM.
4. Repeat the above for %systemroot%\Inf\Usbstor.pnf.
5. If USB storage devices have been used on this machine previously, open up the registry editor; otherwise, ignore steps 6 and 7.
6. Browse to the registry location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor.
7. Open up the registry key Start and change the data value to 4.
Close the registry editor.

That’s it! If simple file sharing was enabled previously, don’t forget to re-enable it.