Once the driver has been installed, the device will be properly recognized in the Devices and Printers window ( Figure 6).įigure 6: The device has been properly recognized To get a blocked device to work properly, the user will need to right-click on the listed device and select Troubleshoot ( Figure 4).įigure 4: Troubleshooting a USB removable storage device that won't automatically installĭoing this runs the Devices and Printers troubleshooter, which after examining the device will prompt the user to install the appropriate driver ( Figure 5).įigure 5: Troubleshooting an unrecognized mass storage device Instead, the Devices and Printers window will display any previously blocked device as an "unspecified mass storage device." ![]() One caution before you enable this policy: If you later decide to disable the policy setting to allow use of USB removable storage devices, any device previously blocked from use will not automatically be recognized by the system. If, however, the flash drive has never been plugged into the computer, Windows will attempt to install the device and then will display a balloon notification indicating that installation was blocked by policy ( Figure 3).įigure 3: Windows cannot install the flash drive because Group Policy is preventing it If the computer recognized the drive before the policy was applied, the drive will still be recognized and will not be blocked. When the policy setting is applied to a computer running Windows 7 and the user of the computer plugs a flash drive into the computer, one of two things will happen. The prevent installation policy is available in AD DS domains running on Server 2008 or later and can be applied to client computers running Windows Vista or later ( Figure 2).įigure 2: Using Group Policy to prevent installation of USB removable storage devices The normal experience in Windows 7 when a user plugs a flash drive into a computer is that a balloon notification appears above the system tray ( Figure 1).įigure 1: Typical installation of a USB flash driveĪdministrators who want to block automatic installation of USB storage devices on computers can do so by enabling the Prevent Installation of Removable Devices policy that is found at: Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > System > Devices Installation > Device Installation Restrictions. Here are tips on how the new operating system can be set to block installation and on how to manage encryption if you allow drive use. ![]() And if your client computers are running Windows 7, you can use BitLocker To Go to encrypt any data stored on such devices. First, if your Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) infrastructure is running on Windows Server 2008 or later, you can use Group Policy to prevent users from installing flash drives and other USB removable storage devices on their computers. Microsoft Windows 7 provides a solution to both these problems. For more on security, check out our new E-newsletter
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |