bamleo

Category: USb Drive

  • Windows 7 Tips

    Create a Shortcut or Hotkey for the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog

    If you often use removable USB devices like a flash drive, you are probably already familiar with the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon that sits in the system tray. The problem for many people is that the icon is tiny, and clicking it just right to bring up the menu is a pain. Can’t we just make a shortcut to bring up the dialog?
    Of course you can, and it’s really quite easy. Easier than trying to click the tiny icon in the tray.
    Create a Shortcut to the Safely Remove Hardware Dialog
    Right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose New \ Shortcut:
    Then paste in the following into the location box:
    RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll
    Give it a name, and you’ll have a shortcut icon that will pull up the Safely Remove Hardware dialog.
    Assign a Shortcut Key
    If you want to assign a shortcut key to this dialog, you can right-click the icon and open the properties dialog, then go to the Shortcut tab.
    Add in the shortcut key and close the dialog. As long as the shortcut is on your desktop you shouldn’t have to restart anything for the hotkey to work. You can also move the shortcut to another folder, for instance your quick launch bar.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    New Autoplay Autorun options in Windows 7
    Whenever an external device is plugged in Windows it showed an Autorun options for choosing what happens when you insert it.
    It can be configured at Control Panel > Autoplay
    In order to help prevent malware from spreading using the Autorun mechanism, the Windows 7 engineering team made two important changes to the product:
    1. AutoPlay will no longer support the Autorun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives.


    Before the change (left) after the change (right)
    2. A dialog change was done to clarify that the program being executed is running from external media.



    Before the change (left) after the change (right)
    Some smart USB flash drives can pose as a CD/DVD drive instead of standard ones. In this specific scenario, the operating system will treat the USB drive as if it is a CD/DVD because the type of the device is determined at the hardware level.

  • Windows 7 Tips

    How a USB drive can be disabled on a particular computer?

    To disable the access to USB port, in windows XP, Vista and Windows 7:
    1. Click Start, and then click Run. 
    2. Type regedit, and then click OK. (Or simply open registry) 
    3. Navigate to the following registry key: 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor 4. In the right pane, double-click Start. 
    5. In the Value data box, change its value to 4, which was 3 and then click OK.
    To re-enable a disabled port:
    1. Click Start, and then click Run. 
    2. Type regedit, and then click OK. (Or simply open registry) 
    3. Navigate to the following registry key: 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
    4. In the right pane, double-click Start.
    5. In the Value data box, change its value to 3, which you changed to 4 to disable the USB drive and then click OK.
    6. Quit Registry Editor.

    Now whenever a user will attach a USB storage device which is already installed in system, Windows will not detect it and it will not be shown in My Computer. However, disabling USB ports totally also disables the ability for Windows to use USB based keyboard, mouse, webcam, printer, scanner and etc., which are common devices for a computer nowadays and essential ones as well.