SP2 Registry Trick Renders All USB Storage as Read-only

January 3rd, 2007

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If you run a network of PCs and wish to disable any kind of writing to your users' USB drives, there is an easier way than installing dedicated USB drive security software. Windows XP Service Pack 2 introduces a new registry subkey that lets you mark USB drives as ready-only devices. So, enabling this will effectively prevent any types of data copying from the PC to the external media. At the same time, you would be kissing U3, Ceedo, MojoPac compatibility goodbye. Regardless, here's what you should do.

Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).
Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies subkey. (Create the StorageDevicePolicies subkey if it doesn't already exist.)
From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.
Type the name WriteProtect and press Enter.
Double-click the new value and set it to 1. Click OK.
Close the registry editor.
Restart the computer.

Filed under USB Flash Drives

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