You or Students forever losing pen drives

[danrhodes]

Here is the solution to all your woe's! A simple program that runs at startup to tell the user whos pen this is!

 

I'm thinking or re-writing something along these lines where it would only show the message if it detected any other username but yours that you would specify at setup?

 

D

LostDrive.rar

[powdarrmonkey]

Hmm, tricky one. I spend my entire life trying to teach users not to run something they don't trust, and that unfamiliar .exes fall headlong into that category :s

 

edit: I like the concept though.

 

however, 260KB in compiled form? that's huge! :boggle:

Edited May 5, 2010 by powdarrmonkey

[mrmontymick]

We advise students and staff to change the volume label of the USB drive to their username... seems to work reasonably well.

[danrhodes]

We advise students and staff to change the volume label of the USB drive to their username... seems to work reasonably well.

 

I think this one quoted above is alot safer and easier!

 

D

Edited May 5, 2010 by danrhodes

[ahuxham]

And running an .exe off a memory stick within a secured network is a good idea, or an idea that is allowed... or an administrative change to GPO to allow it.

 

Exe's on memory sticks are generally blocked for a reason

[ICT_GUY]

We advise students and staff to change the volume label of the USB drive to their username... seems to work reasonably well.

 

A very good idea, one I shall implement. I think a text file in the root of the drive named "drive owner" might work well too.

[OutToLunch]

How can running an untrusted exe be safer than changing a volume label and running nothing? Sorry... Assuming startup mean runs from the autorun.inf on the drive when it is inserted or requires the user to run the exe if when autorun.inf is disabled.

[powdarrmonkey]

It seems like a good idea, but I think this one is alot safe and easier!

 

I really hate to rain on your parade but... single-clicking the drive label in explorer and typing your name is difficult and unsafe? Are you for real?

[mrmontymick]

It seems like a good idea, but I think this one is alot safe and easier!

 

D

 

Should have mentioned we do block exe's on USB drives and autorun.inf as well for all.

[sparkeh]

Here is the solution to all your woe's!

 

I would probably be more worried about users being able to run untrusted .exe from a memory stick?!

 

Why is changing the label unsafe? Can't think of a reason but perhaps I am missing something?

[Pete10141748]

It's even easier to just ban all memory stick use all together and force them to just use shared drives or online storage via your Virtual Learning Platform

[mrmontymick]

It's even easier to just ban all memory stick use all together and force them to just use shared drives or online storage via your Virtual Learning Platform

 

This is the way we would like to go, it's going to be a big cultural shift for people but I think it's worth the effort.

[danrhodes]

Either I wrote it wrong, or you read it wrong which is why I quoted!

 

Originally Posted by mrmontymick

We advise students and staff to change the volume label of the USB drive to their username... seems to work reasonably well.

 

This is the one I meant as the better idea, not mine before your heads pop!

 

D

[danrhodes]

I really hate to rain on your parade but... single-clicking the drive label in explorer and typing your name is difficult and unsafe? Are you for real?

 

Yes I am for real read it again, I meant the idea that I quoted as a better idea :-)

[powdarrmonkey]

Yes I am for real read it again, I meant the idea that I quoted as a better idea :-)

 

Read it again yourself and you'll see how ambiguous your post was.

[danrhodes]

Read it again yourself and you'll see how ambiguous your post was.

 

Post changed, point taken, can we all go back to being friends now, lets not start one of these ever growing threads we keep seeing on here! :-)

 

D

[James2k]

We've adopted the method it's your fault we arent replacing memory sticks. (might be mean but why should we replace memory sticks if you have lost it?)

[danrhodes]

We've adopted the method it's your fault we arent replacing memory sticks. (might be mean but why should we replace memory sticks if you have lost it?)

 

It's a good method, you shouldn't have to replace it, they should have taken better care of it.

 

D

[Mr_Andy]

I think this one quoted above is alot safer and easier!

 

D

 

Hardly ambiguous. Everyone seemed to get surprisingly mental over just bad reading.

Stomachs rumbling?

[Ex-MGSTech]

We have a mutiple approach, one of my Tech's wrote an app to help users change the volume name on any attached USB drives (we use USBDLM so the drive letter is always the same) he also wrote an applet to check during logoff for a USB pen drive and bleep the PC speaker and flash up a warning dialog.......we still get dozens left in rooms every week!

 

S

[danrhodes]

Hardly ambiguous. Everyone seemed to get surprisingly mental over just bad reading.

Stomachs rumbling?

 

I've changed my post since then, looking back it was kind of ambiguous. This was the origional "It seems like a good idea, but I think this one is alot safe and easier!" I actully ment the one I had quoted above, it read that I meant my idea when I didn't.

 

 

I like this idea as well, can't imagine why you still get them left if you have audio and visual warning to remove them.

 

We have a mutiple approach, one of my Tech's wrote an app to help users change the volume name on any attached USB drives (we use USBDLM so the drive letter is always the same) he also wrote an applet to check during logoff for a USB pen drive and bleep the PC speaker and flash up a warning dialog.......we still get dozens left in rooms every week!

 

S

Edited May 5, 2010 by danrhodes

[K.C.Leblanc]

I changed the drive icon for my memory stick to Spongebob Squarepants.

 

I once managed to leave it plugged into the back of a PC in the art block for about a month. I spotted it almost imediatly even though I couldn't physicaly see the stick.

[teejay]

We'll be implementing live@edu from September, with the Skydrive for all pupils and staff. From the half term after that, all pen drives will be blocked.

[danrhodes]

We'll be implementing live@edu from September, with the Skydrive for all pupils and staff. From the half term after that, all pen drives will be blocked.

 

Online storage is definatly the way to go :-)

[AngryTechnician]

The way I deal with this is to use the Autorun feature in USBDLM to run a script that checks each USB stick for an id.txt file whenever it is plugged in. If it doesn't exist, the script creates the file with the username of the currently logged on user. The theory is that the first person who uses the USB stick is probably the owner, and if it's subsequently lost we can open the already existing file to find out who that person is.

 

Have attached the script for reference, as usual use at your own risk, yada yada. If you're using a .ini to configure USBDLM, add the lines:

[OnArrival]

Open=C:\Windows\System32\wscript.exe "\\server\path\usbid.vbs" %drive%

If you're using the Registry, add the Open value to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Uwe Sieber\USBDLM\OnArrival

usbid.vbs