This post shows students and new users steps to restrict or allowaaccess to removable storage drives in Windows 11. A USB or removable storage drive is a common way of easily transferring files from one computer to another.
Removable storage devices can also infect computers with malware and viruses. As a result, in highly secured environments, most people turn off using external storage devices in Windows.
By design, Windows allows users to read and write to removable storage devices connected to their computers.
To enhance your device’s security by restricting access to removable storage devices, you can use the steps below to control that.
If access to removable devices is denied in Windows and you want to re-enable or allow to write to removable storage devices, then use the steps below as well.
How to enable or disable access to removable storage devices in Windows 11
As mentioned above, Windows allows users to read and write to removable storage devices they connect to their computers by default.
Below is how to control that in Windows 11.
To control access to removable storage devices in Windows, open Local Group Policy Editor by clicking on the Start menu and searching for Edit group policy, as highlighted below.
Under Best match, select Edit group policy to launch Local Group Policy Editor.
In the left pane of Local Group Policy Editor, expand the tree:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access
Then, in the Removable Storage Access details pane on the right, locate and double-click the setting All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access.
In the All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access setting window, set the option to Enabled.
Select OK.
Close Local Group Policy Editor.
If All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access is enabled and you want to turn it off via the Local Group Policy Editor, then go to the policy path below:
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access
Locate and double click on All Removable Storage classes: Deny all access settings, then set the option to Not configured.
That should do it!
Other removable devices posts for Windows 11:
- How to mount removable devices in Windows system for Linux
- How to copy files to USB devices in Windows 11
- How to eject removable drives in Windows 11
Conclusion:
This post showed you how to turn removable storage devices on or off in Windows 11. Please use the comment form below if you find any errors above or have something to add.
