If you plug a USB drive into Microsoft Windows, in many cases it will try to do things “for you” with the drive. Not a great idea. There could be malware lurking on that USB drive.
There are a couple of things you can do to help mitigate the issue. These tips assume Windows 11.
Turn off Autoplay
- Open Settings. Press Windows + I to open the Settings app.
- Go to Bluetooth & devices. In the left sidebar, click on “Bluetooth & devices.”
- Select Autoplay. Scroll down and click on “Autoplay.”
- Turn Off Autoplay. You’ll see a toggle switch labeled “Use Autoplay for all media and devices.” Turn this off.
This will turn it off completely. You can, if you want, make individual settings for different types of devices.
Deny Execute Access (Pro or Enterprise versions of Windows 11)
- Open Group Policy Editor. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
- Navigate to the Removable Storage Access Policies. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access.
- Modify Policies. You can enable the policy “Removable Disks: Deny execute access” to prevent execution from removable drives.
- Apply and Reboot.
Note, there are some cases where you may want to execute scripts or programs from a removable drive. If that’s the case, you may not want to do this, or make a note of it so you can re-enable if needed.
I checked two more computers after reading your reply (first time setups) and they all have autoplay off, so I remain skeptical of what you stated.
There are so many trolls and misinformation floating around.
As far as I have seen with those “fresh” installs, your information is not matching the reality here, so I’m moving on to other sources.
This was used as an attack vector more than 15 years ago,I can’t believe they re enabled it honestly. There was a virus on my school’s pcs which installed itself on the USB keys and people just went home and spread it everywhere without clicking on anything thanks to autoplay. Also “asked to chatgpt” lmao.