How to temporarily disable writing to USB

Prevent USB from virus infection or someone from stealing data using his USB, by temporarily disabling writing to any USB device. There are two methods for doing this:

1. Manually editing registry: Open regedit from start->run and browse to following entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect [Note: Be careful while editing registry]

Change the dword value between 00000001[disable write] to 00000000[enable write]. Reboot the system for changes to take effect.

2. Using software called as UltraBlock USB Write Blocker: Simply click on the icon in system tray and choose the menu item to toggle write access. All Thumbscrew really does is flip a bit in the registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect

[via My Tech Quest]

 

Related:

Shield yourself from USB viruses without any AV

Decrease your click count with these windows utilities

Are you tired of digging those deep nested folders in windows explorer?  You opened a folder 10 clicks down and closed it accidentally. And now you don’t feel like clicking again for that recently accessed folder. Wish windows had My Recent Folders’ list like the My Recent Documents’.

 

1.  Folder View is freeware add-on(windows only). It can remember your most recent folders visited and pops them up in a list everywhere you may think of. Access recently used folders’ list and quick access list( like the favorites inside explorer), from system tray, or inside ‘save as’ dialog box

explorer) from system tray, inside ‘save as’ dialog box(very, very useful here) or an optional toolbar inside explorer. While Windows can remember your most recent files(in My recent files’ list), Folder view remembers most recent folders, definitely useful when you accidentally close one of those deeply nested folder and don’t want to dug again to open it.

 

2. Another utility which is very much like Folder view is FileBox eXtender with an easy option to add/delete currently open folder  to ’ quick access list’ and features such as “roll up window” and “stay on top”.

 

 

 

 

3. Finally, if you haven’t switched from XP to Vista, QT Address Bar is a freeware which provides breadcrumbs navigation in windows explorer.

Breadcrumbs typically appear horizontally across the top of a web page, usually below any title bars or headers. They provide links back to each previous page that the user navigated through in order to get to the current page, for hierarchical structures usually the parent pages of the current one. In case, you want to copy or paste onto address bar, just click on the small arrow on the right- this will allow you to hide window’s own address bar(available under View->Toolbars).

(System Requirements for QT Address Bar: Microsoft .NET framework 2.0 or later)

 

 

4. If you are satisfied with your trusty keyboard, reduce your keystrokes with launchy.

 

 

 

5. Firefox fans get some more reasons to be a bigger fan of firefox with these click reducing add-ons.

 

Decrease your click count with these Firefox add-ons

Sometimes big productivity comes in small packages. Taking a clue from this, let us talk about two Firefox add-ons that I have got hooked to since I started using them.

Conventionally, to do a Google search of some text on web page, you select a portion of text, then right click and from the context menu that appears, you select search Google for "selected text here". But context menu becomes clumsy as list of items inside it grows and it is difficult to search across large list of items in context menu.

 

 

 

 

Drag and drop zone searching is an innovative way of doing Google search. Just select the text, drag it. A stylish transparent grid (in the color of your choice, see screenshot above) with all your Search Engines will be displayed over the site you are viewing, and the DropZone you are currently hovering above will be highlighted. Just Drop the text on any of the DropZones and your search will be performed the way you were used to. The advantage here is that you can search across any of installed search engine rather than limiting to only one in context menu and that too in a cool way.

Super drag and go is one add-on in my opinion which should be integrated into firefox. Drag a link or anything like a url (e.g. http://superdragandgo.mozdev.org), and throw it to anywhere blank on the webpage to open it in a new tab. Dragging a link is of course a lot better than middle clicking it. See the screenshot below:

These add-ons will enrich your web surfing experience. If you know of any click saving apps or add-ons, let us know in comments.