Disable Drive Accessibility in Windows 8

Introduction

In this article we will discuss accessibility of local drives in our computer. Security is one of the most important issues of a computer system. Most users want to protect their private data from the outside environment so that no one can access their important data. If we talk about local system then most of the data is stored on a local drive so if we make their local drive protected we can make their personal data secure. Previously the user gets it with the help of an application which makes your personal folder or files locked by use of a word key.

In the series of Windows operating systems Windows 8 is one of the latest operating system versions which came into the market with many new features. In a security point of view it provides us a feature by which we can enable and disable accessibility to the local drives of the computer system. So there is no need to install extra applications to make their data secure. Here we will guide you on how can you disable and enable access to your local drives.

Step 1: Open the Windows 8 operating system; then go to the right lower corner of the screen and click the search button.   

Step 2: A new window will open for all the applications; select the application tab and type gpedit.msc in search box; you will see an application icon on the left side of the window.

Step 3: Click the application icon; a new window Local Group Policy Editor will open.

Step 4: To open the Windows component do the following as below:

User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Component

Step 5: In the category of Windows component, select the sub category Windows Explorer. A list of settings will appear in right side of the window; find the setting to prevent access to local drives from the list.

Step 6: Go to the setting section, right-click on find out setting and click on Edit; a new window will open for setting the accessibility of local drives.

Step 7: In the new window, select the radio button for Enable and below there Pick one of the following combinations; a drop down list will appear; select one or more; here we select Restrict D drive only. Then click apply and OK button.

Step 8: To check the protection, open the drive D; you will get this message: