How to Block USB access in Windows 11?

Disabling USB Storage Devices or Restrict access to other storage devices Prevents your data from getting leaked out to USB drives and other such storage devices. Many corporate companies restrict access to their systems to protect against data theft or to the introduction of any viruses and malware. Also, they add this under their company policy. USB drives are very cheap and if your system doesn’t block the USB Drive it can collapse an entire network by any virus. And hackers are creating different kinds of booby-trapped USB drives to destroy your system and network. So, blocking the USB drives is one of the best security method to protect your system. And there are many third-party software available in the market that helps you to block USB storage devices. You can block the USB access without using any third-party party software in Windows 10/11. However, Windows 10/11 doesn’t offer a direct option to block the removable storage access, but you can use advanced methods like Registry or Group Policy settings change to block the removable storage access. This article will guide you to Block USB access in Windows 11.

Table of Contents

Block USB access in Windows 11:

If you are using Windows 10/11 Home editions, then you can use Method 2, to block the USB access.

Method 1: Block USB access using Group Policy Editor:

Open the Run command by pressing Windows + R and type gpedit.msc and hit enter, this command will open the Group Policy Editor.

Now navigate to the following path.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access

From the left-hand side click on the Removable Storage Access folder and from the right-hand side look for the policy named “All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access”, Click on the Policy Settings.

All removable storage access Deny all access

Choose Enabled and Click on Apply and OK.

Open the Command Prompt and type gpupdate /force, once the policy is updated successfully, restart the system once.

This Policy will block the removable storage access.

Method 2: Using Registry Editor:

Note: Modifying the Registry is risky, and it causes irreversible damage to your OS Installation Follow the steps correctly. Friendly advice Before Modifying Registry Creating Restore Point is recommended.

Open the Run command by pressing Windows + R and type Regedit and hit enter this command will open the Registry Editor console.

Now navigate to the following registry path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\RemovableStorageDevices

From the left-hand side click on the RemovableStorageDevices registry key, and from the right-hand side look for the DWORD named Deny_all.

Double click on the Deny_all DWORD and set the value to 1 and click on Ok.