Introduction
These days almost everyone owns a storage device. Its available in the shape of a small flash drive, external hard drive, mobile phone and many other portable devices. If you want to protect your computer from data theft, viruses, or other risks then you can simply disable the USB port for external USB devices and enable USB ports when required.
In this article we are going to explain how to block or disable a USB drive in Windows 8. In this example we disable a USB port using a registry setting and it's only blocked for Flash drives, external hard disks and mobile phones but not for a USB mouse, USB keyboard etc.
How to disable USB port in Windows 8.
Step 1
Go into the search box and type "Run" and click on the application that appears or press "Win + R".
![Search-In-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 2
In the run window type "regedit" and click on "OK".
![Run-In-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 3
A "Registry Editor" window will be opened.
![Registry-Editor-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 4
In the registry editor go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR".
![USBTOR-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 5
In the right panel double-click on "Start" and a new window will be opened.
![Start-Option-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 6
In this window type "4" in the value data and click on "Hexadecimal", click on "OK".
![Edit-Value-Windows8.jpg]()
Step 7
Restart you computer to apply this setting.
To enable a USB port visit this link:
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/7e39ca/how-to-enable-usb-port-in-windows-8/