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How to enable USB drives , USB ports and USB Mass storage devices ?

This post answers the below questions. If you want answers for these you are in the correct place. Else please leave a comment to editor for more information.

1.How to Enable USB Mass storage devices in Windows XP PC within corporate Networks or Public PCs ?
2.How to enable USB drives ?
3. How to enable USB Flash drives or Portable hard disks or Pen drives?
4. How to install USB flash drives in Windows ?
5. How to enable USB registry ?
6. How to download UsbStor.inf for Windows XP?

[ Warning: You can get fired from your company if you are caught doing this or caught stealing information from your company . This information is just for essential usage.]

Now if you are someone looking for enabling USB Mass storage devices in your corporate Network or public PC , You need to have access to your c:\Windows\System32\inf folder  or Your windows driver folder.

You also need USBStor.inf file in the folder or anywhere else in your PC. If you don’t have the file most likely your IS team would have deleted this file.

Download the file USBStor.inf  Download here. 

You can copy this file to your drivers folder C:\Windows\System32\Inf\ if you want others using PC to install USB mass storage devices or keep in your folders just for you alone.

If you don’t want copy to drivers folder your USB Mass storage devices wont be installed automatically, You will need to go to Device Manager and select device (the device with exclamation) And click update driver and point to the USBStor.inf file.

And you also need to change a registry entry to enable to USB Mass Storage devices – How to enable USB registry entry? 

Change value of the below key to 3 to enable USB Mass Storage device, if it already
3 no need to change this value. If your USB Mass storage device is not working even after installation using driver this will be the culprit, companies set this value to 4 to block the USB Mass storage devices.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

When you do this, the USB storage device is detected and works automatically if it is installed already.
To set the Start value, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.

2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

3. Locate and then click the following registry key:
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

5. In the details pane, double-click Start.

6. In the Value data box, type 3, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then
7. click OK.

8. Exit Registry Editor.

But many companies wont keep the drivers under C:\Windows\System32\Inf\ folder
So you might need to go to Folder options in and enable * show hidden files as below

And then do a search for *.inf and find your driver folder. Companies with smart Infrastructure teams do this so users wont copy drivers directly.

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How to block or Disable USB Flash drives in Windows XP

This Post talks answers the below queries.

1. How to block USB Mass storage – Flash memory drives , USB Flash Memory devices in Windows XP based PCs?

2. How to remove ability to install new USB Mass Storage devices ?

3. How to disable autorun feature of USB drives ?

Next post answers

3. How to enable Blocked USB mass storage devices or flash memory devices in corporate networks?

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Typically USB Mass storage devices like USB Flash drives or Pen Drives or similar devices (Sandisk,Transcend ,U3 Micro cruzer, Kingston ) and Portable Hard disk drives like Seagate,Western Digital etc or any USB mass storage device can be blocked in Windows XP PCs by editing registry and removing some driver files/making the files protected.

Step 1 : If the device is not installed already and you need to block any new installations
The access to following files can be restricted.

%SystemRoot%\Inf\Usbstor.pnf
%SystemRoot%\Inf\Usbstor.inf

Where %SystemRoot% is C:\Windows\System32\ Folder if windows is installed in C. Replace the drive letter based on installation.
Hence you should look for these files under


C:\Windows\System32\Inf\Usbstor.inf

This file has driver information about USB Mass storage devices. If this file is made restricted or deleted, users cant install new Flash drives or any USB hard drives. [This will not affect other USB devices like Mouse, keyboard etc]. When we say restricted make the file accessible only to administrators, if you are talking about kiosk, internet center PC just delete the Usbstor.inf file so no one can install it.

2. If your USB mass storage device is already installed then change the below registry entry value to 4. Its default value is 3 which is USB Mass storage devices enabled condition.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

When you do this, the USB storage device does not work when the user connects the device to the computer.
To set the Start value, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click the following registry key:
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
5. In the details pane, double-click Start.
6. In the Value data box, type  4, click Hexadecimal (if it is not already selected), and then
7. click OK.
8. Exit Registry Editor.

Your USB Mass storage devices will not be detected if this value is changed. This will NOT affect Mouse,Keyboard or any other USB hardware.