Almost every user connects a phone, tablet, reader, flash drives and external HDDs to a computer. When working with these devices, Windows OS installs their drivers. At the end of the operation, they are not deleted from the computer (that is, they gradually accumulate) and, like temporary files, unnecessary entries in the registry clutter up the system.
In addition to this, if the devices are disconnected from the USB port incorrectly (pulled out without software shutdown by the "Eject" function), then the installed drivers not only remain in the system, but also continue to function. Because of this, they often cause a software conflict in the process of connecting another USB device (the system "does not see" the device, gives errors, hangs).
This article will help you avoid all these troubles: it will tell you how to remove the driver of an unused USB drive or gadget from the operating system completely, how to automatically uninstall all USB drivers.
Removal by standard means
Surface cleaning
1. Open the Start menu.
2. Click the right mouse button in the appeared panel "Computer". Select Properties from the command list.
3. In the left column, click "Device Manager".
4. In the manager window, in the horizontal menu, open the "View" section and click "Show hidden devices".
5. Open the "USB Controllers" directory.
6. Remove the old or unused driver: right-click on its name → click "Remove".
Deep cleaning
1. Hold down the Win key and press the Pause / Break key. Or open: Start → right-click "Computer" → Properties.
2. In the window that opens, in the left pane, click "Advanced system settings".
3. On the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button.
4. In the upper block, click Create.
5. In the "New user variable" window:
- in the "Variable name" line enter - devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices;
- in "Variable value" - 1.
6. Click OK in the Variables Panel and in the Environment Variables window.
7. Return to the system properties window (Win + Break) and click "Device Manager".
8. In the manager open: View → Show Hidden ...
9. Click the "Update configuration ..." button (the last one in the panel).
10. The icons of unused drivers in the manager are grayed out (that is, you can uninstall this driver). Open the following directories one by one and remove unnecessary elements (right-click on the name → Delete):
Non-Self-Configuring Device Drivers
Advice! In this directory, you can also remove old drivers installed by programs that have already been uninstalled from Windows (for example, the Comodo firewall package).
This section of devices displays the installed drivers for flash drives, readers, hard drives. Transparent object icons indicate that they are not used (not connected). This means that you can safely get rid of them.
11. After cleaning is complete, restart your PC.
Automatic removal by USBDeview utility
1. Copy this link into the address bar of your browser - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html#DownloadLinks (the official site of the utility). And then press "ENTER".
2. On the opened page:
- if you have a 32-bit system, click the first link “Download USBDeview”;
- if 64-x, the second is "... for x64 systems".
3. Unpack the downloaded archive: right-click on it → select "Extract all ..." → in the "Unpack ..." window, click "Extract".
4. Open the unzipped folder. Run the USBDeview executable file with administrator rights.
5. The utility window displays a list of all drivers installed in the system. Disabled elements are marked with red "chips".
To remove a driver from Windows, select it with a mouse click, and then click the "Trash" icon in the USBDeview panel. Or right-click on it and select “Uninstall Selected Devices” from the context menu.
Note. In addition to the uninstall function, USBDeview provides the user with the ability to disable / enable the driver, view its properties.
Removing all USB device drivers
A global driver cleaning can be performed using the DriveCleanup utility (download link - http://uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip).
1. Unpack the archive downloaded to your computer.
2. If you have 32-bit Windows, open the "Win32" folder, if 64-bit, respectively, "x64".
3. Run the "DriveCleanup" file as administrator.
Once launched, the utility will automatically clean up. At the end of the procedure (when the message “Press any key” appears in the console window) press any key.
Success in setting up the system!
Good day ... Free program USBDeviewis designed to display detailed information about all USB devices (flash card, mobile phone, smartphone, camera, mouse, printer, etc., etc.), ever connected to your computer or laptop, netbook. And it doesn't matter if it is connected at the moment or not. This utility creates with List of all USB devices with the ability to remove them from the system if necessary.
During the life of a computer, the user constantly connects or disconnects various USB devices to it (smart, mouse, printer, etc.).It is known (not to everyone) that every device that is connected to a computer via a USB port will definitely leave in the system (all information about connected devices is recorded ) its trace in the form .
List of all USB devices with the ability to remove them from the system - USBDeview
Features of USBDeview
- device name / description
- prohibit and allow the operation of devices
- date and time when the device was added and time of the last connection
- disable and change device letter
- serial number
- open device parameters in the registry editor
- product and manufacturer identification numbers
- assign device autostart
- can uninstall USB devices. Which you have used before
- copy its properties to the clipboard and display information about it in the form of an HTML report
- disconnect those that are currently connected to your computer
- assign execution of commands when connecting and disconnecting a USB device to a computer port
Installing and using the USBDeview program
You can download the program by this link... The archive contains a 32-bit and 64-bit version in Russian. You must select the desired one and tap on the exe file. USBDeview does not require installation (- version). The main window of the program looks like this.
Pay attention to the top panel where the red, green and blue circles are located, namely the green one. This means that the device is currently active.
When you right-click on any device, you can select:unplug usb device, delete it, properties, view content, etc. Also pay attention to the ability to control .
Double tap on the selected device will show you the properties of this device.
The program also has such a useful function as "Open in Registry Editor". To open this function, select the desired device. Click on it with the right mouse button. Then we select the appropriate item.
After that, a direct transition is made to the registry editor with this driver.
Conclusion
That's basically all on this, I think that the program will be useful to any PC user. With this program, you can deny, allow, or remove selected devices. And also solve many different driver problems.
Now in the forum there was a discussion of how to determine under which account the USB was mounted, but I have the opposite task. It is necessary, without administrator rights, as a user with limited rights, to remove information about connected USB devices from Windows.
The task is difficult because there are no rights to modify the registry. It also fails to solve the problem by loading the LiveCD.
Irina will “thank you very much” after the users whom she “paid attention to” use these tips.
What a sin to conceal, they were ahead, he himself wanted to continue the topic in this direction)))
I think the initial data is sufficient, but nevertheless I will give details.
I will make a reservation right away, this is not about a certified object and not about ensuring information security of confidential information (in a sense). The question was "purely for myself." For example, it is undesirable for me to have in the system, on the working computer, data on connected, personal, USB-devices.
God takes care of the saved and it is not known how these data may affect in the future. Few executives want to find a scapegoat for leaking non-confidential but working data. Or hang the responsibility for spreading a virus on a corporate network. In short, a lot of things you can think of.
In short, we will consider my question from the point of view of an attacker who wants to remove compromising information.)))
We consider the test computer as: an ordinary working computer connected to the corporate network of the organization; OS WIndows XP; authorization through Active Directory, physical access is available; there is access to the BIOS; limited user rights; boot from any media (eg LiveCD) is possible.
How to clear USB flash drive data in Windows registry.
Comments and opinions: 9
1. Ilya 19.05.2011
>>> Attention! These sections also contain information about the hard drives installed on the computer. Do not delete this information.
Question: If I mistakenly delete data on hard drives along with information about flash drives, what then? Kaput system?
Answer:
Yes you are right. Sometimes, even with the full access rights set, it is impossible to delete the specified keys. But there is a way out. You need to run the registry editor with system rights.
I will write below how to do this under Windows XP. I have not tried it on Vista and Windows 7.
So. In order to run a program in Windows XP with system rights, you need to run it through the "Task Scheduler". Make sure you have this service enabled:
Control Panel - Administration - Services - Task Scheduler.
If everything is in order, create a BAT file with the following content:
at 21:01 / interactive regedit.exe
21:01 is the time (you will have your own value) when the task starts. If your system clock shows 20.59, then the registry editor (regedit.exe) will be launched at 21:01, after 2 minutes.
Then we launch the BAT file.
At 21:01 we admire the registry editor running under system rights.
Now you can edit any data in the registry.
8. Athanasius 08.07.2013
Answer to the answer to comment # 3
“I will write below how to do this under Windows XP. I haven’t tried it on Vista and Windows 7 ”.
I tried it on windows 7, but this method no longer works. The registry editor is launched and visible in processes, but the system does not open its windows for security reasons. What is reported when trying to create a task in the task scheduler.
How to remove old USB device drivers from Windows?
Almost every user connects a phone, tablet, reader, flash drives and external HDDs to a computer. When working with these devices, Windows OS installs their drivers. At the end of the operation, they are not deleted from the computer (that is, they gradually accumulate) and, like temporary files, unnecessary entries in the registry clutter up the system.
In addition to this, if the devices are disconnected from the USB port incorrectly (pulled out without software shutdown by the "Eject" function), then the installed drivers not only remain in the system, but also continue to function. Because of this, they often cause a software conflict in the process of connecting another USB device (the system "does not see" the device, gives errors, hangs).
This article will help you avoid all these troubles: it will tell you how to remove the driver of an unused USB drive or gadget from the operating system completely, how to automatically uninstall all USB drivers.
Removal by standard means
Surface cleaning
1. Open the Start menu.
2. Click the right mouse button in the appeared panel "Computer". Select Properties from the command list.
3. In the left column, click "Device Manager".
4. In the manager window, in the horizontal menu, open the "View" section and click "Show hidden devices".
5. Open the "USB Controllers" directory.
6. Remove the old or unused driver: right-click on its name → click "Remove".
Deep cleaning
1. Hold down the Win key and press the Pause / Break key. Or open: Start → right-click "Computer" → Properties.
2. In the window that opens, in the left pane, click "Advanced system settings".
3. On the Advanced tab, click the Environment Variables button.
4. In the upper block, click Create.
5. In the "New user variable" window:
- in the "Variable name" line enter - devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices;
- in "Variable value" - 1.
- if you have a 32-bit system, click the first link “Download USBDeview”;
- if 64-x, the second is "... for x64 systems".
- "Clearing the list of recently used programs for new users";
- "Clear the log of recently opened documents on exit";
- "Clear tile notification log on exit";
- Delete the list of programs pinned to the Start menu.
6. Click OK in the Variables Panel and in the Environment Variables window.
7. Return to the system properties window (Win + Break) and click "Device Manager".
8. In the manager open: View → Show Hidden ...
9. Click the "Update configuration ..." button (the last one in the panel).
10. The icons of unused drivers in the manager are grayed out (that is, you can uninstall this driver). Open the following directories one by one and remove unnecessary elements (right-click on the name → Delete):
Non-Self-Configuring Device Drivers
Advice! In this directory, you can also remove old drivers installed by programs that have already been uninstalled from Windows (for example, the Comodo firewall package).
USB controllers
Disk devices
This section of devices displays the installed drivers for flash drives, readers, hard drives. Transparent object icons indicate that they are not used (not connected). This means that you can safely get rid of them.
11. After cleaning is complete, restart your PC.
Automatic removal by USBDeview utility
1. Copy this link into the address bar of your browser - http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html#DownloadLinks (the official site of the utility). And then press "ENTER".
2. On the opened page:
3. Unpack the downloaded archive: right-click on it → select "Extract all ..." → in the "Unpack ..." window, click "Extract".
4. Open the unzipped folder. Run the USBDeview executable file with administrator rights.
5. The utility window displays a list of all drivers installed in the system. Disabled elements are marked with red "chips".
To remove a driver from Windows, select it with a mouse click, and then click the "Trash" icon in the USBDeview panel. Or right-click on it and select “Uninstall Selected Devices” from the context menu.
Note. In addition to the uninstall function, USBDeview provides the user with the ability to disable / enable the driver, view its properties.
Removing all USB device drivers
A global driver cleaning can be performed using the DriveCleanup utility (download link - http://uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip).
1. Unpack the archive downloaded to your computer.
2. If you have 32-bit Windows, open the "Win32" folder, if 64-bit, respectively, "x64".
3. Run the "DriveCleanup" file as administrator.
Once launched, the utility will automatically clean up. At the end of the procedure (when the message “Press any key” appears in the console window) press any key.
Success in setting up the system!
izbavsa.ru
We sweep the traces. How to make Windows delete history, logs, caches and forget everything
Lists of open files and USB devices, browser history, DNS cache - all this helps to find out what the user was doing. We have compiled step-by-step instructions on how to remove traces of your activities in different versions of Windows, Office and popular browsers. At the end of the article, you will find several scripts to help you automatically keep your machine clean.
1. Clearing lists of recent places and programs
Let's start by cleaning up the list of recent places and programs. The list of recent (in Windows 10 - frequently used) programs is in the main menu, and the list of recent places is in Explorer.
How to turn off this mess? In Windows 7 - right-click on the "Start" button, select "Properties" and in the window that appears, uncheck both checkboxes in the "Privacy" section.
Disable storage of the list of recent programs in Windows 7
To clear the list of recent locations and documents, you need to delete the contents of the% appdata% \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Recent directory. To do this, open a command prompt and run two commands:
It also doesn't hurt to delete the contents of the% appdata% \ microsoft \ windows \ recent \ automaticdestinations \ directory. It contains the latest files that appear in the jump list:
To clear recent files automatically on exit, you must enable the "Clear recently opened documents log on exit" policy, which is located under User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar.
Now let's move on to Windows 10. You can turn off the list of recently added and frequently used applications through the "Options" window. Open it and go to the "Personalization" section, the "Start" item. Disconnect everything that is there.
Disable program list storage in Windows 10
It seems that the problem has been solved, but alas, this is not entirely true. If you enable these parameters again, then all lists with the same composition will appear again. Therefore, you will have to disable this feature through Group Policy. Open gpedit.msc and go to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar. Include the following policies:
Group policy
Clearing recent places in Windows 10 is easier than in the "seven". Open Explorer, go to the "View" tab and click the "Options" button. In the window that appears, turn off the options "Show recently used files on the Quick Access Toolbar" and "Show frequently used folders on the Quick Access Toolbar." Don't forget to press the "Clear" button.
Windows 10 folder options
As you can see, a simple task like clearing the last objects has a rather tricky solution. Without editing group policies - nowhere.
2. Clearing the list of USB drives
At some secure facilities, only flash drives registered in the journal are allowed to be connected to the computer. Moreover, as usual, the magazine is the most ordinary one - paper. That is, the computer itself does not restrict the connection of unregistered drives in any way. Does not limit, but records! And if, during the check, they find that the user has connected unregistered drives, he will have problems.
We are by no means advising you to try to steal military secrets, but the ability to clear the list of recently connected drives can be useful in other life situations as well. To do this, look at the following registry keys:
Here they are - all the drives that you connected to your computer.
Registry key with the history of connecting drives
It would seem that you just need to take and clean everything. But it was not there! First, the permissions for these registry branches are set in such a way that you will not delete anything even in the "seven", let alone the "ten".
Secondly, it takes a long time to assign rights and permissions manually, especially if there are a lot of drives. Thirdly, admin rights will not help. The screenshot above was created when I was performing the delete operation with admin rights. Fourth, in addition to these two sections, there is a long list of sections to clean up. Moreover, they need not only be deleted, but competently edited.
If for some reason you need to do everything manually, then search for the keywords MountPoints, MountedDevices DeviceClasses and RemovableMedia. But it's much easier to use a ready-made program that will do everything for you. Some forums recommend USBDeview for this. However, I tested it and declare that it does not clear information from all the necessary sections. USBSTOR and USB continue to contain information about the connected media.
I can recommend the USB Oblivion program. Run it, check the "Perform real cleaning" checkbox. You can enable the "Save .reg undo file" parameter or not, but if the goal is not to check the program, but to prepare for the upcoming computer inspection, then it is better to turn it off.
USB Oblivion
The program not only cleans the registry, but also displays a detailed log of its actions (see below). When it finishes working, there will be no mention of connecting drives to your computer.
USB Oblivion in action
3. Clearing cache and browser history
The third point in our tudu is clearing the cache and browser log. There are no difficulties here - each browser allows you to reset the list of recently visited sites.
Continuation is available only to subscribers
Option 1. Subscribe to "Hacker" to read all materials on the site
Subscription will allow you to read ALL paid materials on the site within the specified period. We accept payments by bank cards, electronic money and transfers from the accounts of mobile operators. More about subscription
Option 2. Buy one material
Interested in information, but there is no way to pay for a subscription? Then this option is for you! Please note: This purchase method is only available for content published more than two months ago.
How to remove traces of a flash drive in windows?
How to remove traces of a flash drive in windows
Flash Drive - Uses flash memory. Convenient and quite common among users of individual computers. In individual cases, the need to work with the flash drive exists, and the traces left on the computer are not needed. This is possible when the employer prohibits the use of any unregistered data carrier. Either in order to preserve the confidentiality of the presence of a flash drive on someone else's computer, in order to avoid leakage of valuable information, theft of intellectual property, trade secrets, maintain a high level of information security, or infect computer networks with malicious computer software, viruses, computer worms. This causes not only material damage, but also damage to the company's image. There is an option to prohibit the off-duty use of the employer's computer equipment and software. Flash drives differ among themselves in the amount of information they can hold, by manufacturing companies, in design, in size, but the principle of storing information about them in computer memory is the same.
There are several options for removing traces of a flash drive. Consider the options for removing traces of a flash drive from windows memory using specific examples:
- Removing traces of a flash drive manually. After finishing working with the USB flash drive and disconnecting it from the computer, do the following:
- Click start,
- Select the line to execute,
- Type REGedit and click ok,
- In each folder, by right-clicking and choosing "delete", we erase the information about the USB flash drive.
From the appeared registry branches select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ MountedDevices
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Enum \ USBSTOR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Enum \ USB
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ DeviceClasses \
WINDOWS \ setupapi.log
It is in them that the history of connecting flash drives is saved.
This option is only possible if you log into WINDOWS as an administrator. Under the name user or user, you will not be able to remove traces of the flash drive manually, you need to change the user.
To change the username: click start, select the settings menu bar, control panel, enter the "Administrative Tools" folder, select "Computer Management" and change the name from user to administrator. In individual cases, this cannot be done, due to the simplicity of the installed version for users. Then, we advise you to use the second option.
As a result of manual cleaning, invalid links may appear in the registry, so some experts do not welcome its use.
2. Removing traces of a flash drive using the utilities program. This method is faster and better. The downloaded programs will repeatedly come to your aid in matters related to cleaning the registries. The algorithm of actions, in this case, is as follows. Let's consider it with a specific example:
Our flash drive was identified as the second in the list. Copy the program USBOblivion to your desktop from the Internet. This is a free program designed to remove traces of CD-ROM and USB drives. Removes from the registry Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7. There are both 32 and 64 versions.
The USB Oblivion utility is designed to erase the traces of connecting USB disks and CD-ROMs from the memory of Windows 7, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, both 32 and 64-bit versions. There are 4 versions of the program, 1.3.0.0.- the most recent and updated, added automatic disconnection of disks. The program is fully automated, more automated, its plus - it is possible to clean USB Sidi-roms.
Disconnect all USB devices from your computer. The program does not erase anything by default, do not forget to check the corresponding box. Reg file is created in the "Documents" folder, generated with a detailed report.
· In the copied folder on the desktop, select USB Oblivion 32 (compressed Zip folder), extract all files from it. They will be copied to a separate folder that you will find on your desktop.
Open the usboblivion folder, open USBOblivion32.exe (cleaning utility).
Select the checkbox: do real cleaning and press the clear button.
Check the resulting result using the USBDeview program.
Here's what happened in our case:
Traces of our flash drive in windows have been removed. We wish you successful work too. It is convenient to deal with this program, it is reliable, and, which is not unimportant, its download is free.
We examined an example of deleting information about a USB flash drive using a specific program as an example. There is a large selection of programs from different manufacturers on the Internet today. It is possible to use a flash drive so that information about it does not remain at all and then it does not have to be deleted. To do this, install a Russian tweaker on the USB flash drive, which works without installation. After starting it, in the settings, indicate not saving the document history, search history, etc. Select the item: "Cleaning the paging file". Remember to disable the Trash before shutting down or restarting your computer. Before removing the flash drive, you must close the edited or just open files. Otherwise, there will be a lot of temporary files. A good option would be to create a default temporary folder in Word, and empty it from time to time. View the settings of the Word, the history of documents: click deny. With the mouse (right click) click on My Computer, select Manage, then - Device Manager. Turn on the View menu, select: show hidden devices. Remove the pale gray devices, i.e. absent in the sections "Storage volumes" and "Universal serial controllers. USB bus ". Experiment, choose the option that is right for you.
Good afternoon, dear readers of the blog site, today I want to tell you how to delete data on USB flash drives in the Windows registry. This article is a continuation of the article. All information about any USB drives ever connected to a computer is stored in the system registry. If many flash drives of different models and manufacturers are connected to a computer, then over time a lot of garbage accumulates in the registry. As a result, the process of identifying and connecting a new device begins to take a significant amount of time and slows down the system.
There is only one way out. You need to periodically clean the registry keys that store data about plug-in flash drives and other USB drives. Clearing these partitions will speed up the connection of new USB devices and the system as a whole.
Cleaning must be done using the Regedit system program. It starts like this.
Start - Run - Regedit
Registry sections that store data about any USB drive ever connected to a PC - Flash drives, external hard drives, as well as cameras, phones, flash players and other devices that, when connected to a PC, were recognized as an external USB drive. All subsections with the Disc prefix can be deleted here.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Enum \ USBSTOR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ ControlSet001 \ Enum \ USBSTOR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ ControlSet002 \ Enum \ USBSTOR
The screenshots show that the hubs and HDDs were also connected via the hub
If you don't want to clean it by hand, then there is free software, for example USB Oblivion. Run the utility
Check the box Perform real cleaning
We see that everything is complete and many entries have been deleted from the registry. Let's check the registry. Please note that there is no USBSTOR folder.
Well, let's look at the sequence with the USBDeview program, everything is also clean.
Here are dear readers where the data about your flash drives is stored, so if something needs to be deleted then start.