FIX FOR USB SECURITY HOLE

USB pen drives have become a source of some concern for a lot of system administrators. There’s almost nothing to stop someone with one of these devices from using it to copy or steal data from PCs in offices, commercial premises, schools and colleges. In fact the problem was addressed in Windows XP Service Pack 2, which includes a new Registry key that stops data being copied to USB memory devices by classifying them as Read-Only media; this tip shows you how to use it.

Safety Warning! This tip is for advanced users as it involves editing the Registry. It’s not difficult but tinkering willy-nilly with it can cause problems. Even if you know what you are doing you should still set a new System Restore Point or backup the Registry.
Now that’s out of the way open the Registry Editor (type 'regedit’ in Run on the Start menu) and work your way to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
CurrentControlSet\Control
If there is no StorageDevicePolicies subkey shown you will need to create one by right-clicking into the right-hand pane select New > Key; right click on the new key and Rename it. Double click the key to select it and from the Edit menu select New > DWORD Value and give the new value the name WriteProtect, press Enter then double-click the new value and set it to 1. Exit Regedit and reboot. To revert back to open access change the value to 0 or delete the key

AUTOMATIC UNATTENDED LOGOFF

This tip might interest Windows XP users who work in a busy office and who find that they are occasionally and unexpectedly called away from their desk, leaving their PC’s unattended. Clearly this has security and privacy implications but the good folks at Microsoft have come up with a solution in the shape of a screensaver called Winexit. After a preset period it will automatically exit any running programs then log the user off.
Winexit is free but the only trouble is Microsoft has bundled it in with a lot of other utilities, in the Windows 2000 Resource kit, which you have to download in order to get at it. When the download has completed and it has finished installing open up the Resource Kit folder (you should find it in C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools), right-click on Winexit.scr, select Install and the Display Properties box appears, click Settings and set your timings as appropriate.

SIMPLE SECURITY TRICK

If you share your PC with others you obviously know that it is next to impossible to keep your personal files and data private, but there is a way. The trick is to use a built-in Windows facility for protecting System files, by ‘hiding’ them from view in Windows Explorer and all of the programs on your PC. To hide a folder and its contents simply open Windows Explorer then right-click on the folder icon. Select Properties and under Attributes check ‘Hidden’. In order for this to work Windows Explorer must be set to hide nominated files, so go to Tools > Folder Options, select the View tab and a short way down the list make sure that the item ‘Do not show hidden files’ is checked.