How to Disable USB Ports in Windows 10 [5 Methods]

Last Updated on July 4, 2017

You can disable your PC’s USB ports using this guide. I have written all the methods that I know of with how to reverse the changes in case you ever feel like using USB ports again on your PC.

Why disable USB ports though?

Well, on your home PC, you might not care about putting your friend’s thumb drive to transfer some files in and out. You trust your friend.But, a lot of places like schools, offices and public PCs don’t have the luxury of this trust.

People can put malware, steal data and infect other people’s files by using USB drives. The best way to avoid this situation is to simply disable the USB ports on a PC.

With BIOS

Boot your PC into BIOS. You can do that by restarting your PC and then pressing F8 to enter BIOS.

Most PCs show the POST screen to give you the time to press a key to boot into BIOS. This method may or may not work for your PC depending on the manufacturer of your PC’s motherboard. Check the manual.

Once you are on the main BIOS screen, look for Advanced, Peripherals or Devices tabs. Since most motherboard manufacturers have different UIs for their BIOS, it’s simply not possible for me to specify exact steps for everyone.

But, you can look for something like USB Controllers or USB Devices throughout the menus. Set them as disabled.

Save all the changes in your BIOS and restart your PC. After restarting, Windows 10 won’t recognize your USB ports. Some motherboards also have the option to disable all or selected ports, so you can fine tune the settings according to your preference.

To undo these changes, boot again to the BIOS and set the USB devices/peripherals to Enabled again. Save changes and restart. Following is a video which you can use to take a hint.

YouTube video

With the Registry Editor

Windows has this simple registry trick which you can use to disable USB ports. The advantage of this method over the BIOS is that you can still use the rear USB ports on your PC after disabling the front ones.

  • Press Windows + R to open the Run box. Type regedit and press Enter to open the Windows Registry Editor.
  • Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR
  • Double-click on the DWORD (32-bit) Value named Start and set its value to 4.
  • Restart your PC to apply the changes.

Note: To undo your changes, simply set the value of the Start DWORD (32-bit) Value to 3 again and restart your PC.

With the Device Manager

  • Press Windows + X + M to open the Device Manager.
  • Double-click on Universal Serial Bus controllers. This will expand all the USB devices connected to your PC.
  • Right-click on any of the Generic USB Hub and select Disable to disable it.

Note: This method works fine, but the issue is that you can’t be sure which USB port maps to which Generic USB Hub. So, you’ll need to experiment a bit in order to disable the correct one.

Uninstall USB Drivers

The last resort for you is to simply uninstall the USB drivers on your PC to disable the USB ports.

  • Press Windows + X + M to open the Device Manager.
  • Double-click on Universal Serial Bus controllers. This will expand all the USB devices connected to your PC.
  • Now, right-click on any of the Generic USB Hub and select Uninstall to remove the driver.

Use IntelliAdmin USB Disabler Pro

disable-usb-ports-windows-10

If you don’t like messing with stuff on your PC, you can also try an external utility available for Windows called the IntelliAdmin USB Disabler Pro. You can use it to disable selected USB ports, disallow flash drives based on device IDs and a lot more.

Download IntelliAdmin USB Disabler Pro

These were the 5 simple methods to disable/enable USB ports in Windows 10. If you know any other methods, please use the comments section to let me know.

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Written by Utkarsh

Utkarsh Bhatt is a certified tech expert and software engineer for a Fortune 500 Company. He was born in 1995, making him one of the oldest members of the team at EFX. Utkarsh loves solving technical issues and is always the first to jump on any problem that needs solving. When he’s not coding or debugging, he enjoys playing video games (especially Super Smash Bros.) and watching cartoons.

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