Block USB Storage

Found this blog with workable solutions. Just the things I need to keep PCs under control.

http://blog.ashfame.com

You may want to block USB mass storage device to disallow the unauthorized use of pendrives or you may want to unblock USB mass storage device to get access (most of the case in college’s net lab).

Well, this can be done by a simple registry tweak. Before doing so, I recommend taking a backup of the registry because playing with registry can be harmful for your OS. Read (How to backup your windows registry). When you have backup the key :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR proceed further.

To disable access

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR] “Start”=dword:00000004

To enable access

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR] “Start”=dword:00000003

Copy the required code to a text file and save it as *.reg file. Just open that file and information will be added to the registry.

Source : Thinkdigit Forum

How viruses spread from USB/Thumb/Pen drive?

Whenever a USB drive is plugged into a infected computer, virus copies itself to the pen drive and sets it to execute itself when pen drive is accessed by making changes in the autorun.inf. Whenever pen drive is accessed, the autorun.inf calls the executable file of the virus upon which the system gets infected.

How to save your computer from viruses from USB/Thumb/Pen drive?

The most effective method of preventing your system from getting infected is to disable autorun feature of USB devices. DJ tells us about disabling autorun feature on Sizlopedia. He tells us a method in which he uses gpedit.msc and disable autorun feature but the problem is that gpedit.msc is not available under Windows XP Home Edition.

So, I am going to explain how to disable USB autorun feature through registry editing which not only works for WInXP Home but also for any other edition of Windows.

• Browse to the following key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
• Modify the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun to df (hexadecimal)
  
  
  
  

Psycho Jump

An alcoholic guest of ours, who was mentally sick, was sent to the General Hospital yesterday.

Later today afternoon, a call from GH informed my boss that the guest jumped from the fifth floor and now they have some serious cleaning to do.

This late guest consumed mostly alcohol at our place and ran up a credit card bill of about RM25K, past his credit limit of RM10K. Don't ask why our credit people did not spot this.

Anyway, my boss instructed our people to immediately settle his latest bill by charging his credit card. This will go into our service charge.

Sorry you had to checked out like this, dude.

Get Rid of Windows XP 3-Days Activation

I setup a LICENSED Windows XP Pro on a PC and swapped the HDD on home PC (how often do you find me doing this on own PC?). Of course, both the PCs are of the same MOBO specs, or so I thought.

The PC booted successfully, except it prompt to re-activate Windows in 3-days since it detected significant hardware changes on the PC.

After googling a bit, found tips in Youtube on how to get rid of the activation.

Just open registry> regedit

Go to;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ WPAEvents

Modify the binary data of OOBETimer to FF D5 71 D6 6A 8D 6F D5 33 93 FD

Change the permission of folder WPAEvents of SYSTEM to DENY.

Restart PC and done !!