Windows Vista: Tips for setting up hardware installations

For shared computers, sometimes you need to set up preventive settings for hardware devices such as portable hard drives to prevent important data copying. Windows Vista has features that support this requirement quite well.

Manage the types of devices that can be installed

Windows Vista allows you to specify what types of devices can be installed on the system and which ones will be blocked. To exploit this function, we use Group Policy using the following steps:

Set up the hardware installation pane in Group Policy.

- Type " gpedit.msc " in the Start Search dialog box and press Enter. Click " Continue " when the UAC window appears.

- Go to the following link:
Computer Configuration Administrative TemplatesSystemDevice Installation Restrictions

- Activate the following setting: " Prevent installation of drivers matching these device setup classes ". Select " Show ", select " Add ". Type the GUID for the device class you want to prevent installation from.

For example , if you do not want the Bluetooth devices installed, type: {e0cbf06c-cd8b-4647-bb8a-263b43f0f974} for the GUID. You can refer to the list of GUIDs for different device types here.

Another way is to enable the setting: " Prevent installation of devices that match these device IDs ", press " Show " and select " Add ". Next, we need to specify Device ID of the device type you want to prevent installation into the system. For example, if you want to prevent USB-connected devices such as keyboard and cursor combination, then select device ID is: USBCOMPOSITE . Refer here for a Device ID list.

Remove the "Found New Hardware" message

The " Found New Hardware " message will appear when new hardware is connected to the system or a detected device. Sometimes this message will be annoying for you and to turn it off, just do it quickly with Group Policy:

Go to: Computer Configuration Administrative TemplatesSystemDevice Installation . Activate setting: Turn off "Found New Hardware" balloons during device installation .

In addition, you can refer to the installation instructions and prevent the installation of hardware or other devices on the system at Microsoft Technet help.

Thanh Truc