Looking for an XP registry entry in Windows 7.

P

Peter Jason

In XP there's a registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR
that can be deleted to remove evidence of a thumb drive.

This seems to be missing in Windows 7. Where is the equivalent?

Also, is there some way to remove numerous instances of a name in the
registry? Such as USBSTOR?

Peter
 
P

Paul

Peter said:
In XP there's a registry entry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\USBSTOR
that can be deleted to remove evidence of a thumb drive.

This seems to be missing in Windows 7. Where is the equivalent?

Also, is there some way to remove numerous instances of a name in the
registry? Such as USBSTOR?

Peter
This site, has a script that demonstrates what the Microsoft utility
DEVCON can do. Download the RenewUSB.bat file (it downloads as RenewUSB.txt,
to prevent accidents). You do not want to just run that script verbatim,
but the contents of the script will demonstrate what tools are available.

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.php

In there, you can see that a command such as

devcon FindAll =USB

will list all the USB devices in Device Manager. I see two
entries that correspond to the two USB flash sticks I own.
I have an external USB enclosure with hard drive, and have
used on occasion, two USB flash sticks (1GB, 8GB).

USB\VID_0325&PID_AC02\AA04012700252303 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- 8GB
USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901\5&19D02293&0&1 : Mitsumi USB Floppy
USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901\5&3AB24582&0&2 : Mitsumi USB Floppy
USB\VID_0403&PID_6001\FTEHLXJX : USB Serial Converter
USB\VID_0403&PID_6001\FTEMAQMS : USB Serial Converter
USB\VID_046D&PID_0990\B4B16F1B : Logitech USB Camera (Pro 9000)
USB\VID_04A9&PID_10C8\1C73A5 : USB Printing Support
USB\VID_04B4&PID_6830\2000000000002537 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- USB HDD
USB\VID_077D&PID_0405\5&3062B09D&0&1 : USB Composite Device
USB\VID_0951&PID_1603\8990000000000002511362B3 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- 1GB

Using http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids , I can see that the first
one is my 8GB stick. The second one (6830) is my USB hard drive
enclosure. And the third Mass storage entry is my 1GB stick.

You can see he uses

DEVCON Remove "@%%A"

in the script, where a previous part of the command, works out the contents of
the token to be passed. You would need to modify the script slightly, so
it prints out the tokens, rather than executing them, so you can tell how
it is identifying the intended targets.

So perhaps removing those devices, would remove them from where they're
hiding in the equivalent of ENUM ? As far as I know, Windows 7 would still
have the equivalent to DEVCON, because it still has a device manager function.

When I tried devcon on my Win7 laptop, I needed to run cmd.exe (the command
prompt window) elevated, with administrator privileges. That prevented UAC from
hijacking my fun. And I also had better luck, with using one ">" for
redirection to a file, as in

devcon FindAll =USB >stupidwindows7.txt

The redirection allows you to save the command output, then open
it in Notepad.

You might be able to just add all the relevant commands to a single
script file, rather than going through the steps that renewusb uses.

devcon remove ...
devcon remove ...

where the dots are replaced by the necessary details, and remove
the entries one at a time.

Have fun,
Paul
 
P

Peter Jason

This site, has a script that demonstrates what the Microsoft utility
DEVCON can do. Download the RenewUSB.bat file (it downloads as RenewUSB.txt,
to prevent accidents). You do not want to just run that script verbatim,
but the contents of the script will demonstrate what tools are available.

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/devcon.php

In there, you can see that a command such as

devcon FindAll =USB

will list all the USB devices in Device Manager. I see two
entries that correspond to the two USB flash sticks I own.
I have an external USB enclosure with hard drive, and have
used on occasion, two USB flash sticks (1GB, 8GB).

USB\VID_0325&PID_AC02\AA04012700252303 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- 8GB
USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901\5&19D02293&0&1 : Mitsumi USB Floppy
USB\VID_03EE&PID_6901\5&3AB24582&0&2 : Mitsumi USB Floppy
USB\VID_0403&PID_6001\FTEHLXJX : USB Serial Converter
USB\VID_0403&PID_6001\FTEMAQMS : USB Serial Converter
USB\VID_046D&PID_0990\B4B16F1B : Logitech USB Camera (Pro 9000)
USB\VID_04A9&PID_10C8\1C73A5 : USB Printing Support
USB\VID_04B4&PID_6830\2000000000002537 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- USB HDD
USB\VID_077D&PID_0405\5&3062B09D&0&1 : USB Composite Device
USB\VID_0951&PID_1603\8990000000000002511362B3 : USB Mass Storage Device <--- 1GB

Using http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids , I can see that the first
one is my 8GB stick. The second one (6830) is my USB hard drive
enclosure. And the third Mass storage entry is my 1GB stick.

You can see he uses

DEVCON Remove "@%%A"

in the script, where a previous part of the command, works out the contents of
the token to be passed. You would need to modify the script slightly, so
it prints out the tokens, rather than executing them, so you can tell how
it is identifying the intended targets.

So perhaps removing those devices, would remove them from where they're
hiding in the equivalent of ENUM ? As far as I know, Windows 7 would still
have the equivalent to DEVCON, because it still has a device manager function.

When I tried devcon on my Win7 laptop, I needed to run cmd.exe (the command
prompt window) elevated, with administrator privileges. That prevented UAC from
hijacking my fun. And I also had better luck, with using one ">" for
redirection to a file, as in

devcon FindAll =USB >stupidwindows7.txt

The redirection allows you to save the command output, then open
it in Notepad.

You might be able to just add all the relevant commands to a single
script file, rather than going through the steps that renewusb uses.

devcon remove ...
devcon remove ...

where the dots are replaced by the necessary details, and remove
the entries one at a time.

Have fun,
Paul


Thanks, I'll get going on it.
Peter
 

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