If you don’t want anyone to copy files from your PC to USB devices, you can write protect your USB ports by a simple registry hack.(works only on Windows XP SP2 or higher versions)

To enable write protection on USB follow following steps -

1. Go To Start > Run.
2. Type ‘Regedit’ in run dialog.
3. browser to Go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies‘.
4. Create a DWORD value called ‘WriteProtect‘ and set it to 1.
5. This will disable writing on USB drive
, you can still read from USB device
. To enable writing change it’s value to 0 or delete the key.

eDevicePolicies’ under Control you can create that folder there and then add the Key.

Also Alternative you can use following codes to automate the process without browsing through registry –

To Disable USB write copy following code in notepad and save the files as “DisableUSBWrite.reg”

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
“WriteProtect”=dword:00000001

To Enable USB write, copy following code in notepad and save the files as “EnableUSBWrite.reg”

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies]
“WriteProtect”=dword:00000000

Now whenever you want to disable or enable functionality Double click on desired function file, you will get a prompt asking “Are you sure you want to add the information in C:\……\EnableUSBWrite.reg to the registry? ”

Click Yes , and you will get a confirmation message in next step, and you are done.