How to Prevent USB Drives from Spreading Viruses!

When you stick a thumb drive infected with a worm like Conficker/Downadup into a clean system, the normally handy AutoPlay feature launches the worm and spreads the infection. So, what are you waiting for? Turn off AutoPlay! Panda Security offers a free “vaccine” program that will turn it off. But you can actually flip the master switch without any utilities. Here’s how:

On non-Home versions of Windows (for example, Windows XP Professional, Vista Ultimate): 

1. Click Start, click Run, enter gpedit.msc (launch Group Policy Editor); 
2. XP users: Open Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System, 
Vista users: Open Computer Configuration | Windows Components | AutoPlay Policies; 
3. Find Turn Off AutoPlay in the right-hand pane and double-click it; 
4. Choose Enabled and set it for All drives.

Or, in any Windows version:

1. Launch the Registry editor (Start | Run | regedit); 
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ 
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer; 
3. Double-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun in the right-hand pane and set its value to hexadecimal FF.

Good Luck and be sure to try this out if you browse the internet a good bit and also use your flash drive with your computer and others! If you have any questions or comments on how to do this feel free to leave a comment and I will be glad to help any way I can in getting you all setup!