Blocking CD and other Optical drives

Today we did a job for a customer where he wanted us to block the usage of CD and other Optical Drives from his employees when using his remote desktop. Below you will see a short rundown on how to do it and a website which will give you further knowledge on how to do so.

If you would like a more detailed how to, then check this website here. (http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/25619-blocking-usb-devices-and-removable-media)

1. Create a GPO.

The first step is to open up Group Policy Management and create a new GPO. It’s always best to create two GPO’s, one for blocking read access and one for blocking write access.

By creating these two you can apply each individually so you can allow one for a certain group and block the other one for another group.

These policies apply to all forms of removable media not just USB based media, this means you can block other media access such as CD and DVD access as well.

2. Set the Desired Policy Items

Now you want to set these policies to the following location: User Configuration >> Policies >> Administrative Templates >> System >> Removable Storage Access

If you look through the list of options you’ll see 2 choices for all media types. One choice when enabled blocks the write access and the other choice will block read access.

If you want to block write access enable the block write access options and if you want to block both the enable both items.

3. Apply the GPO

Now you have created your GPO Policy! All you need to do now is apply the GPO to the users which you want to restrict their removable media for by assigning it the correct OU’s.

So there you have it, that’s a quick rundown on how you Block the CD drives and other optical drives.

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