Boot Your Windows PC Using USB Stick As a Key

[Arzaan]

Most people are tired up and frustrated of colleagues starting their computer when they are not around and messing up custom settings.Most of us are concerned about the security and privacy of our data. We put login passwords, encrypt data and do various other tricks to ensure that someone cannot access our system without our authorization. But some times we get failed.

Now, we can make a strong security by locking our Pc to boot with an USB stick. In this case our PC boots only when we make it boot by USB.Wouldn’t it be cool if you could lock your computer by just removing your USB stick from it?

It will allow you to use your USB stick as a key to boot into Windows.

If someone tries to start the computer without your USB stick, it will display boot errors.

This can be achieved by using a regular USB/pen/thumb drive (whatever you call it). Basically configure your system to boot windows from USB stick. The hack would be more than enough to keep even your curious geeky computer friends from booting into the system.

To lock your system with a USB stick, you need to follow some steps, but remember that playing with the BIOS and boot files of your computer may result in you not being able to boot into your Windows partition. To do that go through:-

1. You need a USB Stick of minimum 64Mb. First format it.

2. Within Windows Explorer go to Tools > Folder Options.

3. View tab, choose “Show hidden files” and uncheck “Hide protected operating system files”.

4. Connect your USB stick

5. Open up the Windows Partition (usually C: ), copy boot.ini, NTLDR and ntdetect.com onto your USB drive.

6. Boot up the system and change the boot order preference to check for a USB device first. You can access the BIOS menu generally by hitting F8 when the computer just starts.

7. Once in the BIOS, enable USB Drive as the first boot device. You might have to enable USB Legacy Support on older BIOSes.
Just in case you are curious, the boot.ini file is required to tell where the operating system resides. NTLDR is the NT loader which actually loads the operating system. ntdetect.com detects basic hardware that is required to boot up the system.
The changes are fully recoverable, although it would require some work for the uninitiated. If something goes wrong or you want to restore back things as they were then use the Recovery Console from your Windows CD.

Then at the command prompt issue “bootcfg /rebuild”. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen.

Thats it, you are done but this solution is not foolproof. In case Windows does not load, use your Windows Recovery Disk.Even if someone is not able to boot their system you can easily get your data by using a live CD. So you might still want to keep your data encrypted.

[aalbaiz]

i dont think its a good way to lock PC for some users. Because this method requires to make some changes to our operating system. There is possiblities that anything go wrong with your PC bcz BIOS and boot files of your computer may result in you not being able to boot into your Windows partition.

I think we should search some other way to lock PCs

[Fullorton]

I think we should try this to protect our PC from colleagues or other people to get misused.

USB System Lock. A freeware program, USB System Lock works flawlessly while locking and unlocking your computer. You can find it on this month’s Computing DVD. When you first install USB System Lock, it detects your USB stick and creates a digital key on it.

This key is used by the program to authenticate the user and log into the computer. Strangely, the program is not included in the start-up list by default. To add it there, you need to drag Agent from the USB System Lock entry under All Programs to the Startup folder in the same menu. If you happen to accidently delete the key from your USB stick while working on the protected computer you can re-assign a key using Start > Programs > USB System Lock > Key Disk Generator.

Or My Lock 2.0

This program takes USB-based computer locking to a whole new level.

For Rs 400, you can lock access to not only your PC but the keyboard, CD Drive and even access to Safe Mode. You can also set a particular time for the computer to automatically lock itself. What is most interesting about the program is that you can set a passphrase so that you can use it to log into the computer even without the USB Stick plugged in. The 30-day trial of this program can be found on this month’s Computing DVD.

[Monalisa]

Good article, i think this is the best way as most of us are concerned about the security and privacy of our data. And also everybody know the hack would be more than enough to keep even your curious geeky computer friends from booting into the system, so you might not want to bet your life on it.