Though there so many application we already have over the web to protect data, but what if you had to share a public computer at the work-area or the institution, and there you don’t want to install such software. So if you are looking for a way to block access to certain drives without using any software then here is a trick which you would love to apply.
With this trick in existence you can block any particular drive just by changing some disk properties via the Gpedit.msc command.
First of all you need to open gpedit.msc type it in the search box of the Start Menu and hit Enter.
Now navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Windows Explorer as shown below. Then on the right side under Setting, double click on Prevent access to drives from My Computer.
Select Enable then under Options from the drop down menu you can restrict a certain drive, a combination of drives, or restrict them all. The main drive you would probably want to restrict is the C:\ drive or which ever lettered drive Windows is installed on. Restricting all drives means they can’t access the CD or DVD drive, and cannot use a flash drive if they need to get files from it.
Note: Even though you have applied these settings all this won’t prevent users from using programs that access the local drives.
The restrictions take effect immediately, no restart is required. When a user opens up My Computer they’ll be able to see which drives are listed, but when they try to access a restricted drive, they’ll get the following error message.
Though as I have used Windows 7 Ultimate to tell you about the settings, but all this well works with XP Professional and Vista as well.
To revert these setting only you need to change last option you have set to restrict disk drives rest of them will be the same.
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