home » Goods and services » Clearing traces of flash drives. We clean the traces of USB flash drives in the registry. Clearing cache and browser history

Clearing traces of flash drives. We clean the traces of USB flash drives in the registry. Clearing cache and browser history

Sometimes it becomes necessary to disable USB ports on a computer or laptop in order to restrict access for connecting flash drives, hard drives and other USB devices. Disabling USB ports will help prevent any storage devices from being connected that could be used for theft important information or cause a virus to infect your computer and spread malware software by local network.

Restricting access to USB ports

Consider 7 wayswith which you can block USB ports:

Disable USB through BIOS settings
Change registry settings for USB devices
Disable USB ports in device manager
Uninstalling USB Controller Drivers
Using Microsoft Fix It 50061
Using additional programs
Disable USB ports physically

1. Disable USB ports through BIOS settings

Sign in bIOS settings.
Disable all USB controller related items (eg USB Controller or Legacy USB Support).
After you have made these changes, you need to save the settings and exit the BIOS. This is usually done with the key F10.
Restart your computer and make sure the USB ports are disabled.

2. Enabling and Disabling USB Drives Using Registry Editor

If disabling via BIOS does not suit you, you can close access directly in Windows itself using the registry.

The instructions below allow you to close access for various USB drives (for example, flash drives), but other devices such as keyboards, mice, printers, scanners will still work.

Open the Start menu -\u003e Run, enter the command " regedit”And click OK to open the Registry Editor.
Proceed to the next section
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Services \\ USBSTOR
In the right part of the window, find the item " Start”And double click on it to edit. Enter value " 4 »To block access to USB drives. Accordingly, if you enter again the value " 3 ”, Access will be re-opened.

Click OK, close Registry Editor and restart your computer.

The above method works only when the USB controller driver is installed. If for security reasons the driver has not been installed, the "Start" parameter value may be automatically reset to "3" when the user connects uSB stick and Windows will install the driver.

3. Disable USB ports in device manager

Click right click mouse on the icon " Computer"And choose in context menu item "Properties". A window will open on the left side of which you need to click on the link " device Manager».
In the device manager tree, find the item " USB controllers”And open it.
Disable controllers by right-clicking and selecting Disable from the menu.

This method does not always work. In the example shown in the figure above, disabling the controllers (the first 2 points) did not lead to the desired result. Disabling item 3 (USB Mass Storage) worked, but it only gives you the option to disconnect a single instance of the USB drive.

4. Removing USB controller drivers

Alternatively, to disable ports, you can simply uninstall uSB driver controller. But the disadvantage of this method is that when the user connects a USB drive, Windows will check for drivers and, if they are absent, will offer to install the driver. This in turn will open up access to the USB device.

5. Prevent users from connecting USB storage devices using an application from Microsoft

Another way to prevent access to USB drives is to use Microsoft Fix It 50061 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/823732/ru - the link may open near mituta). The essence of this method is that 2 conditions for solving the problem are considered:

The USB drive has not yet been installed on the computer
USB device is already connected to the computer

Within the framework of this article, we will not consider this method in detail, especially since you can study it in detail on the Microsoft website using the link given above.

It should also be noted that this method is not suitable for all versions of Windows.

6. Using programs to disable / enable access to USB storage devices

There are many programs for setting access denial to USB portm... Let's consider one of them - the program USB Drive Disabler.

The program has a simple set of settings that allow you to deny / allow access to certain drives. Also USB Drive Disabler allows you to configure alerts and access levels.

7. Disconnecting USB from the motherboard

Although physically disconnecting USB ports on motherboard is almost an impossible task, you can disable the ports located on the front or top of the computer case by disconnecting the cable that goes to the motherboard. This method will not completely close access to USB ports, but will reduce the likelihood of using drives by inexperienced users and those who are simply too lazy to connect devices to the back of the system unit.

! Addition

Deny access to removable media through the Group Policy Editor

In modern windows versions it is possible to restrict access to removable storage devices (including USB drives) using the local editor group policy.

Run gpedit.mscthrough the Run window (Win + R).
Continue to the next branch " Computer Configuration -\u003e Administrative Templates -\u003e System -\u003e Access to Removable Storage Devices»
On the right side of the screen, find the item " Removable disks: Deny reading ".
Activate this option (position "Enable").

This section of Local Group Policy allows you to configure read, write, and execute access for different classes removable media.

Good day... Free software USBDeview is designed to display detailed information about all USB devicesx (flash card, mobile phone, smartphone, camera, mouse, printer, etc., etc.), ever connected to your computer or laptop, netbook. And it doesn't matter if it is connected at the moment or not. This utility creates withlist of all USB devices with the ability to remove them from the system if necessary.

During the life of a computer, the user constantly connects or disconnects various USB devices to it (smart, mouse, printer, etc.).It is known (not to everyone) that every device that is connected to a computer via a USB port will definitely leave in the system (all information about connected devices is recorded ) its trace in the form .

List of all USB devices with the ability to remove them from the system - USBDeview

USBDeview features

device name / description
prohibit and allow devices
date and time when the device was added and time of the last connection
disable and change device letter
serial number
open device parameters in editor system registry
product and manufacturer identification numbers
assign device autostart
can uninstall USB devices. Which you have used before
copy its properties to the clipboard and display information about it in the form of an HTML report
disconnect those that are currently connected to your computer
assign execution of commands when connecting and disconnecting a USB device to a computer port

Installing and using USBDeview

You can download the program by this link... The archive contains 32-bit and 64-bit versions in Russian. You must select the one you want and, tap on exe file... USBDeview does not require installation (- version). The main window of the program looks like this.

Pay attention to the top panel where the red, green and blue circles are located, namely the green one. This means that the device is currently active.

When you right-click on any device, you can select:unplug usb device, remove it, properties, view content, etc. Also pay attention to the ability to control .

Double tap on the selected device will show you the properties of this device.

The program also has such useful function like "Open in Registry Editor". To open this function, select desired device... Click on it with the right mouse button. Then we select the appropriate item.

After that, a direct transition is made to the registry editor with this driver.

Conclusion

That's basically all on this, I think that the program will be useful to any PC user. With this program, you can deny, allow, or remove the selected devices. And also solve the set various problems with drivers.

And so let's get straight to the point.

Briefly about methods of cleaning USB connection traces

Cleaning the registry - most affordable way, but for an inexperienced user it may turn out to be too difficult to implement, since it will be necessary to enter the registry (in the heart of windows) and delete traces there. For administrators, this method is acceptable if there are not many computers.
Cleaning with DriveCleanup and USBDeview - the simplest and most convenient way, just run these two utilities and these little programs will do the trick. Why did I specify two programs, because I noticed that separately, each of them does not completely clean up, and after processing with two, traces cannot be detected.
H extraction using fepstools and cleaning utilities — this method suitable for cleaning traces UBS all computers in the enterprise network. This method uses special program fepstools which allows you to run other programs in a hidden mode, i.e. cleaning utilities.

Let's consider the first way. Cleaning up the registry

We open Start -> Kick out or in search bar command regedit... If you have windows 8.1 then the easiest way is to create special shortcut to launch console commands ... To do this, on the desktop screen, right-click and select create shortcut, and in the label we write cmd On the created shortcut cmd right-click and run as administrator... In the screen that opens, enter the command we need in our case regedit

Information about connected devices is located in the following path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Enum \\ USB

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Enum \\ UsbEStub

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Enum \\ USBSTOR

An example record of the form VID_058F & PID_6366 shows what kind of device was connected. The VID parameter is the serial number of the device, and the complete record of the serial number can be seen by opening the VID_058F & PID_6366 folder, then we will see this number 058F63666438, this is the serial number of our device.

Almost every user connects a phone, tablet, reader, flash drives and external HDD to a computer. When working with these devices, Windows OS installs their drivers. At the end of the operation, they are not deleted from the computer (that is, they gradually accumulate) and, just like temporary files, unnecessary entries in the registry clutter up the system.

In addition to this, if the devices are not disconnected from the USB port correctly (pulled out without software shutdown by the "Eject" function), then installed drivers not only remain in the system, but also continue to function. Because of this, they often cause a software conflict in the process of connecting another USB device (the system “does not see” the device, gives errors, hangs).

This article will help you avoid all these troubles: it will tell you how to remove the driver of an unused USB drive or gadget from operating system completely how to automatically uninstall all USB drivers.

Removal by standard means

Surface cleaning

1. Open the Start menu.

2. Click with the right mouse button in the appeared panel "Computer". Select Properties from the command list.

3. In the column to the left, click "Device Manager".

4. In the dispatcher window, in horizontal menu, open the "View" section and click "Show hidden devices".

5. Open the "USB Controllers" directory.

6. Remove the old or unused driver: right-click on its name → click "Remove".

Deep cleaning

1. Hold down the Win key and press the Pause / Break key. Or open: Start → right-click "Computer" → Properties.

2. In the window that opens, in the left pane, click "Advanced system settings".

3. On the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button.

4. In the upper block, click "Create".

5. In the "New user variable" window:

in the "Variable name" line enter - devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices;
in "Variable value" - 1.

6. Click OK in the Variables Panel and in the Environment Variables window.

7. Return to the system properties window (Win + Break) and click "Device Manager".

8. In the manager open: View → Show Hidden ...

9. Click the "Update configuration ..." button (the last one in the panel).

10. The icons of unused drivers in the manager are grayed out (that is, you can uninstall this driver). Open the following directories one by one and remove unnecessary elements (right-click on the name → Delete):

Non-self-configuring device drivers

Advice! In this directory you can also remove old drivers, installed by programsthat are already uninstalled from Windows (for example, the Comodo firewall package).

This section of devices displays the installed drivers for flash drives, readers, hard drives. Transparent object icons indicate that they are not used (not connected). This means that you can safely get rid of them.

11. After cleaning is complete, restart your PC.

Automatic removal by USBDeview utility

1. Copy to address bar browser this link - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html#DownloadLinks (official site of the utility). And then press "ENTER".

2. On the page that opens:

if you have a 32-bit system, click the first link “Download USBDeview”;
if 64-x, the second is "... for x64 systems".

3. Unpack the downloaded archive: right-click on it → select "Extract all ..." → in the "Unpack ..." window, click "Extract".

4. Open the unzipped folder. Run the USBDeview executable file with administrator rights.

5. The utility window displays a list of all drivers installed in the system. Disabled elements are marked with red "chips".

To remove a driver from Windows, select it with a mouse click, and then click the "Trash" icon in the USBDeview panel. Or right-click on it and select “Uninstall Selected Devices” from the context menu.

Note. In addition to the uninstall function, USBDeview provides the user with the ability to disable / enable the driver, view its properties.

Removing all USB device drivers

A global driver cleaning can be performed using the DriveCleanup utility (download link - http://uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip).

1. Unpack the archive downloaded to your computer.

2. If you have 32-bit Windows, open the "Win32" folder, if 64-bit, respectively, "x64".

3. Run the "DriveCleanup" file as administrator.

Once launched, the utility will automatically clean up. When the procedure is complete (when the message “Press any key” appears in the console window) press any key.

Success in setting up the system!

Good evening, dear visitors to my blog !!! I haven't written anything new for a long time. I sat and thought, but I remembered an interesting topic that I encountered at the session. The topic of the registry and the connection of usb-flash drives, in the classroom we considered writing code to extract a flash drive from the system into safe mode by means of Free Pascal. The code was properly disassembled and considered within the framework of this topic, I do not see the point, but I will tell you how to clean the traces left by flash drives that you once connected.

How to clean the registry from USB traces?

We will clean standard means "Regedit". It starts like this: "Start - Run - regedit"

The main window of the Registry Editor will open. Now you will need to find the following subsections:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Enum \\ USBSTOR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ ControlSet001 \\ Enum \\ USBSTOR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SYSTEM \\ ControlSet002 \\ Enum \\ USBSTOR

Each of these sections stores data about the connected flash drives. Records with the prefix Disc, you can safely delete. As an example, I give screenshots with the contents of these sections in my registry.

This content is section number 1 - CurrentControlSet

Here you can see the contents of the section - ControlSet001

Well, here, as you probably already guessed, the section entries are ControlSet002

Select and delete records with the prefix Disc.

Why clean registry entries?

If you connect a lot of flash drives to your computer, then your registry starts to clog up with this garbage, as a result of which the recognition process starts to slow down with each new flash drive, but do we need it?

Is it possible to facilitate (speed up) the cleaning procedure?

Yes it is possible! To do this, you need to use a program, as an example I can give - Usb Oblivion. The program is easy to find on the Internet, it is free, and weighs very little.