Phrozen Safe USB : Disable or Enable USB Sticks in Windows

My sister came back from school and inserted the USB stick her friend had given her into our computer. In a short time, our computer was infected with the autorun malware. I had to repair the infection with a combination of tools from various online resources. But after that we made a policy of not using just any USB keys into our computers. Now PhrozenSoft has come up with a better safety plan against such infected USB keys – Phrozen Safe USB which is a simple application that helps you to toggle on or off the USB storage devices on your computer.

Phrozen Safe USB is a tiny Windows application that can be used to switch the modes of USB storage devices in Windows. Using this tool you can control your USB Device Status and set it in the following three different modes:

  • Fully Operational Mode: USB Storage devices can be used normally (you can copy, modify, move or delete files). This is as if you are not using any tool to control the use of USB devices.
  • Read Only Mode: You only can read its contents. Therefore no virus could copy itself to your computer to spread. Other cannot intentionally try damage, delete or modify the contents on your computer;
  • Disabled Mode: In this mode you are not able to see USB Storage devices anymore. It is in stealth mode. In this instance you do not want anybody to export data or to import harmful content from your computer to USB Key.

You can download and install Phrozen USB Safe tool from the Phrozen Soft website. After the installation, you can run it from its desktop shortcut. This would place an icon in the notification area of Windows. You can right-click on notification area icon and select a mode to choose from. You can also open the settings from the same right-click menu.

Phrozen Safe USB : Disable or Enable USB Sticks in Windows

In the settings for Phrozen USB Safe tool, you can set it to run automatically each time Windows starts as well as set the USB mode from the dropdown list.

Phrozen Safe USB : Disable or Enable USB Sticks in Windows

So if you often end up getting viruses on your computer through USB keys, then its time to use Phrozen USB Safe and set the mode to read-only or disabled. This way you would be able to read the contents but nothing can be written on the USB key. You should note that if an antivirus finds malware on such a read-only USB key, it might not be able to delete or clean the infected file because of the Read-Only-Mode.

You can download Phrozen USB Safe from http://phrozenblog.com/?p=145.