How to disable usb ports in windows 7. How to disable or enable USB ports in Windows

Peripherals devices such as a mouse, keyboard, Web camera, and printer are usually connected to a computer via USB ports. In this case, it often happens that one or more ports stop working. That is, when you connect, for example, a flash drive to a computer, it is not recognized, the keyboard or mouse may freeze, and the printer may not respond or print pages.

There are several probable causes where some or all of the USB ports on the computer do not work. Let's try to understand this issue and find out what should be done to restore normal functioning of the computer.

Checking BIOS settings

The first thing you should pay attention to is BIOS settings computer. To enter the BIOS you will need a working keyboard. If the keyboard is connected to the computer via USB and it does not work, then you need to connect a keyboard with a PS/2 connector. Otherwise, you simply won't be able to do anything.

So, let's go into the BIOS, for which, when starting the computer, you need to press the enter key, usually DEL. There may be another key that appears on the screen and is listed in the motherboard manual. After entering the BIOS, find the section responsible for integrated devices (Integrated Peripherals) or the “Advanced” section. Here you should find the “Onboard Devices Configuration” subsection. It is there that the parameters responsible for USB operation controllers: USB Function or USB 2.0 Controller. These parameters must be Enabled. And if one of them is disabled, then hover over it and press Enter, thereby enabling it. To ensure that the changes you make are not lost, you must save them by pressing F10 and confirm saving by pressing the Y or Enter key.

After restarting the computer, check if the USB ports are working. And if not, then you should look for the reason elsewhere.

USB ports on the front of the computer do not work

How special case USB only on the front panel may not work for you. In such a situation, you need to check whether the necessary connectors on the motherboard are connected and whether the wires are damaged. To do this, open the side cover of the system unit and pay attention to the connector at the bottom motherboard. On the board itself there is an inscription USB1 or USB2, as well as on the block itself. The wires from the block go to the front panel, and if they are disconnected or broken in one place, then you have discovered the cause of the malfunction. Damaged wires should be connected or replaced. It would also be a good idea to check the contact in the connector on the motherboard. It is also worth paying attention to the board located on the front panel. Perhaps there is short circuit By the way, such a short circuit can be caused by accumulated dust. So be sure to clean system unit from dust.

Problems with the device itself or the cable

The next source of problems with USB may be the cable with which, for example, the printer is connected. This fault is easy to identify and fix. We connect the flash drive to the connector being tested. If it works, then we try to connect another known-good equipment, for example a USB hub, using a suspicious cable. If it also refuses to work, then the reason is clearly in the cable and it should be replaced.

Power outages

There are situations when there is simply not enough power for all devices. For example, when connecting an external hard drive, which uses two USB connectors at once, the printer or keyboard may turn off. In this case, the power of the power supply is not enough to provide energy to all consumers. In this case, the problem may not appear immediately, but after some time after turning on the computer. There are several ways out of the situation. If you have installed low power unit power supply, for example, 300 W, then it would be logical to change it to a more powerful one, 450-600 W. You can also use an active USB hub (with external power supply). It will allow you not only to increase the number of connected USB devices, but also to power them from a separate power supply.

Another reason affecting USB operation is a dead CMOS battery. But at the same time, every time you turn on the computer, you will observe a problem system time and date. After replacing the battery the problem goes away. But this does not occur often, so you should check other possible sources of malfunction.

Missing or incorrect installation of USB drivers

Reasons related to software malfunctions in Windows 7/10, can be identified using Device Manager. If you notice that one or more devices in particular are not working, regardless of the port used, this may indicate that the problem is in the device itself. Open Control Panel and go to Device Manager. All connected devices will be displayed there. If there are items in the list next to which there is a yellow exclamation mark or instead of the name it stands Unknown device, then the problem is in this very device. There may be several possible problems here.

Often USB inputs stop working after Windows reinstallation 7/10. The reason is incorrect installation drivers or necessary drivers may not be found at all. You will have to select and install manually.

Often, to fix a problem you just need to update the drivers. So, if automatic Windows update, and the system itself was installed quite a long time ago, then the relevance of the software is lost, and problems may appear. system errors. In this case, the device begins to work incorrectly, or even stops functioning altogether. To update (reinstall) USB controller drivers, you can use a CD/DVD with drivers for the motherboard or download the necessary drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website.

You can also turn off the power saving feature for all ports using Device Manager. Expand the list of used USB devices, hidden in the sections " USB controllers", "Mouse and other pointing devices", "Keyboards". Double-click on to the desired device to open the properties window. Now switch to the “Power Management” tab and uncheck the “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” checkbox. Thus, the device will always be activated under any circumstances.

If some equipment is not recognized, then there may be either a problem with the drivers already known to us, or a hardware problem, consisting of a lack of contact, a damaged cable, or a malfunction of the controller. Moreover, it often happens that when a faulty device is connected, the others stop working normally. The keyboard starts to freeze, as does the mouse, and the printer stops printing. The problem is similar to power shortage, that is, all power consumption is spent on faulty device, in which there may be an ordinary short circuit or other malfunction.

USB ports not working due to controller damage

If none of the above actions helped restore the functionality of the USB ports, then you should check the controller USB motherboard board, which could fail. In this case, high-quality repairs and diagnostics should be entrusted to specialists service center. As a way out of the problem, try installing an expansion card, the so-called USB PC controller, which is installed in the PCI slot on the motherboard. This solution is noticeably cheaper than repairing the motherboard USB controller, and when using an additional USB hub, the problem with the lack of ports will not be relevant at all.

As you can see, finding and fixing problems with USB ports is quite a troublesome task, and all because there can be a lot of reasons. Consistent search and elimination of obviously incorrect paths will allow you to identify and eliminate the problem.

Sandbox

Quickly and easily disable USB ports on Win7 part 2

In the previous article I wrote how inexperienced user disable USB ports using group policies. However, I forgot that different versions OS Windows 7 contains various features.
Please note that I am not talking about installing an additional free software, because I know from experience that closing a hole with free software risks opening five more. I suggest using the built-in OS features.

I know from experience that to save money, small companies install such versions “ Home Basic" or " Home Premium"on staff cars (well, this is only installed if the company is trying to work legally and does not want a fine for illegal software. And those companies that are not afraid of inspections install all pirated software and do not suffer))).
And on the “Home Basic” and “Home Premium” versions there are no accessories inherent to their older brothers. And close the ports within our means group policies it won't work. Therefore, we need to block access directly to the executive files that initiate the initialization of devices connected to USB ports.

Let's say that there are 3 users on the machine, “Operator”, “Manager” and “Administrator” in the Administrators and Users groups
It is necessary to make sure that the flash drive can only be used by a user under the “Administrator” account.

Turn on the computer, log in as an administrator, open Explorer and write "%SystemRoot%\inf\"(hereinafter in the text copy without quotes).

Next in the search we write “USB”

Will output approximately 18 elements. (depends on what system is installed, OS version, installed additional drivers for USB)
We essentially only need 8 files.
usb.inf
usbstor.inf
usbport.inf
winusb.inf
usb.PNF
usbstor.PNF
usbport.PNF
winusb.PNF

Then we need to block access to these files to other users. Click right click on file "usbstor.inf" -> "properties"

Go to the tab "safety", and press the button "change"

Then we select the users we need to disable. For us these are “Operator”, “Manager” and “System”. If we need to disable all accounts that belong to the “Users” group (these are “Operator” and “Manager”), then we simply ban the group. If only a specific one, let’s say “Operator”, then select this particular account.

Attention account“System” also needs to set a ban on using the file.
Then we set a ban on use, switch to another user and also set bans. When required users will be disabled (for me it is only “system” and “users”)

click the “Ok” button

There will be a warning that this will lead to the fact that access to the file will be unavailable and all that (if you want, you can read it), click the “Ok” button again.
Again we read the message about whether we really want to do this (you can read it if you wish), and press the “Ok” button again.

And we repeat this procedure for the next 7 files.
usb.inf
usbport.inf
winusb.inf
usb.PNF
usbstor.PNF
usbport.PNF
winusb.PNF

If this is only an installed OS, then everything is in order and, in theory, access to the flash drive will not be available to selected users. However, if flash drives were already connected to this system by those users who needed to disable access to flash drives, then you will need to change the key in the registry.

Click start -> write regedit -> open the registry

Open the folder “USBSTOR”
and change the value of the “Start” parameter to 4

Tags: disable, USB ports, flash drive

If the USB ports on your PC are not working and Windows settings and driver updates do not help, perhaps the controller was disabled in the BIOS. In this case, you will need to go to the configuration menu and turn everything back on.

There are many different versions BIOS with its own interfaces and subtleties of operation. Also, a more modern complex can work on your computer - UEFI, which supports a full GUI interface. This article discusses the distributions that are most often installed on motherboards.

Entering BIOS settings

To start changing the configuration, you need to go to the corresponding menu. It can be opened while turning on the personal computer - before the start Windows boot from the hard drive.

Turn on your PC. In case it is already running: reboot. Wait sound signal speaker: a short single beep indicates that everything is internal components, necessary for the computer to operate, have been detected.

Now you need to click hotkey to call the configuration. This must be done before changing the screen. If you don't have time and Windows starts loading, reboot. The keys depend on the installed motherboard model and version BIOS firmware. You can find it in the user manual that came with the motherboard, on the manufacturer’s official website, or view on your PC screen when loading it:

If you don't know the board model, it's okay. Just try pressing next keys: Tab, Delete, Esc, F1, F2, F8, F10, F11, F12. One of them will definitely do.

You don't have to try just 1 option at a time. You can quickly press all the buttons from the list without any problems. One of them will come up and launch the BIOS settings, and the rest will be ignored.

Entering the BIOS/UEFI settings of the latest PCs

Many modern computers boot up so quickly that you won't be able to access the keystrokes when you turn them on. This is also true for laptops. That's why latest versions Windows OS has acquired new feature launch. Let's show it using Windows 8.1 as an example.

Your computer or laptop will reboot into setup mode. After restarting your PC, you will also be able to select option to run from a USB drive or DVD.

Menu navigation

Almost all BIOS versions are devoid of GUI. This means that you will have to work only using the keyboard, as in, for example, Windows console. Navigation is carried out using the up-down and right-left arrows. To open any section, use the Enter key to go back - “Escape”. A small reminder of the keys used is always shown on the screen.

Firmware complex UEFI installed on the most expensive and powerful motherboards. He supports more drivers and can use a mouse. Its interface will be familiar Windows users and other modern operating systems.

Each version has its own interface and sets of options. Even the names of the same parameters may differ. The following article describes several popular BIOS releases.

AMI BIOS

A very common option that can be found on many modern computers. The main menu is divided into 2 parts: a list of categories and various actions, like exit or save. You will be working on the left side.

You need to go to the section called “ Integrated Peripherals». Russian version There is no interface, so all commands are only in English. Use the Down arrow to highlight this item and press Enter.

Here you need to enable ( Enabled) 4 options:

• USB EHCI controller– main controller. If the motherboard has version 3.0 ports, this item will be divided into 2 parts: “Controller” and “Controller 2.0”;
• USB Keyboard Support– keyboard support;
• USB Mouse Support– mouse support;
• – work with external data storage: flash drives, disk drives, disks of smartphones and digital cameras.

In some older versions there are only 2 points " USB controller" And " Legacy USB storage support».

When you are done with the settings, press the F10 key to save changes made and restart your computer.

Phoenix AwardBIOS

Another popular version that can often be found on modern laptops. Doesn't have home page, like AMI, but with convenient thematic tabs at the top. You can move between sections using the left and right arrows, and between items using the up and down arrows.

Go to the section " Advanced» using the Right arrow. In it, find the category “ USB configuration" All items in this section must be moved to the position “ Enabled" In some versions the category " USB configuration" may be located in the " tab Peripherals" and not in "Advanced".

To exit the menu, press F10 and confirm exit.

AMI BIOS for Asus

AMI version used on Asus laptops. Externally it is very similar to Phoenix - a similar bookmarks bar. Settings USB are in the section " Advanced" Go there, enable all options and exit using the F10 button.

UEFI

Contrary to popular belief, UEFI is not part of the BIOS. It can rather be called a more advanced, but less popular competitor. Exists large number different versions, each with its own interfaces. However, here the controls are similar to familiar Windows, so you can easily find the options you need.

Windows Settings

If at the BIOS level all ports and controllers are enabled, but USB ports still don't work, there may be a problem with your Windows system settings.

First, just try disconnect and reconnect the device. This will check if the drivers are correct. If there's something wrong with them, Windows will try to reinstall them.

If nothing happens when you reconnect, try turn on the controller in the Windows registry. To do this you need to do the following:

Video: how to configure any BIOS to boot from a USB flash drive

USB ports can be disabled without using third party programs. Windows tools You can turn off all USB ports at once, or those that need to be turned off at the moment.

Theft confidential information from users' computers is currently extremely relevant. To prevent data leakage, you may need to disable USB ports. Very often we have to connect various external storage devices to the PC, in particular via USB ports. These external devices may contain malicious code, which is actually the reason for the “leaking” of confidential data into the hands of “malware”. Today we will tell you how you can teach your computer to quickly disconnect USB ports without resorting to installing and using third-party programs.

To realize our plans, we will need to make some changes to Windows registry. To do this, first we need to open it, for this in the search engine Windows line(in Windows XP-7 search string located in the “Start” menu, in Windows 8 on the panel, as shown in the figure below), you must enter the regedit command, press the “Enter” key and select regedit.exe registry editor from the search results.

In the registry editor window that opens on your screen, to start disabling USB ports, go to the “UsbStor” registry key, opening the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services sections in sequence. Find the “Start” parameter in the final section, click on it with the left mouse button and context menu select “Change” and change its value from “3” to “4”, where “3” is the default value of the parameter.

After changes have been made to the registry, a flash drive connected to the computer via a USB port will still be detected by the system, but will not automatically connect to it. In other words, it will be impossible to write data from the flash drive or run any programs from it. If you need to return the USB port settings to their original ones, all you need to do is change the value of the “Start” parameter to the previous one, that is, “3”. In this case, you do not need to restart your computer for the changes you made to take effect.

Disable certain USB ports

There are times when it is not possible to disable all USB ports on the system at once and you only need to disable some of the USB ports. In this case, you can use another method.

Launch “Device Manager” on your computer, then find it and go to the “USB Controllers” line. By the way, to open “Device Manager” just press the key combination “Win” + “Pause” and in the window that opens, click on the corresponding link on the left side.

Now in the newly opened “Properties” window USB ports” Go to the “Drivers” tab and click on the “Disable” button in it. Everything is ready!

We hope that you have found the answer to your question - “how to disable USB ports” and now, depending on the situation, you will be able to disable them all at once, or only those that you consider necessary.

It is recommended to disable USB ports as a precaution, namely when connecting flash drives, external drives or other USB devices with the aim of infecting your computer with all kinds of viruses or stealing data. It is for these reasons that many IT workers in offices and companies block access to them. Without bothering with any programs for these purposes or other settings, they simply disconnect it from the motherboard.

Below I will give some examples with descriptions, how to disable USB ports on a computer.

Disable USB in Bios

We go into Bios, to do this, when turning on or restarting the PC, click Delete key on the keyboard. Go to the Advanced section ( Advanced BIOS features), where we are interested in the next option Legacy USB Support. By default, it has the Enabled position, change it to Disabled.

We save the changed values ​​by pressing the F10 hotkey and exit.

Via the registry

Using +R, open the Run window and enter the Windows command “regedit” (without quotes). In the editor we go along the branch

Microsoft Registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

Find the DWORD parameter “Start” and change its value to “4”.

We reboot by first clicking the “OK” button.

PS: How to enable USB ports? Change the value back to "3".

device Manager

Open the “Start” menu, right-click on “Computer” and go to “Properties”. On the left side of the screen, click on the “Device Manager” link. In the displayed list, look for the “USB Controllers” item, open it and use the mouse to deactivate it.

Going to "Properties".

Then “Drivers” and then click the button shown in the screenshot below.

Removing USB controller drivers

An option that also has a place to be. Simply use a program, for example, CCleaner, to remove drivers from your computer. Downside is that when you restart the PC it will check for the presence of these and install them. Which will again open up access to the ports.

Fix It utility

You can download and at the same time find out how you can use it to deny access by following this link //support.microsoft.com/ru-ru/kb/823732.

Using programs

There are quite a lot of applications, it’s impossible to list them all, but I would like to use one. Its name is USB Ports Disabler. Download from the link. We launch and then everything is intuitive.

First, click the button highlighted in the figure below