USB Flash Drive Guardian
USB Guardian is a free security program for the Windows operating system that can improve a system's protection against threats that use removable devices as an attack vector.
USB storage devices, USB flash drives for instance, are used by millions of computer users for storage. Some users carry these devices around with them to access data stored on the device on different computers they work on.
While that is super useful, USB flash drives have been used in the past to attack computer systems. One of the most popular worms that was spread via removable devices was the Conficker worm which infected millions of computer systems.
Some - but not all - security programs protect computer system from attacks carried out from USB flash drives that get connected to the computer systems.
USB Guardian
USB Guardian runs silently in the system background after installation. The program is designed to scan USB flash drives automatically as soon as they are connected to the computer system.
Note: The program tries to install a toolbar during installation. This toolbar is not required to run the program, and you may decline its installation during setup.
USB Guardian isolates autorun directives on the removable device automatically to block any program referenced by the autorun file. Since it does so automatically on connect to the PC, USB Guardian prevents that attack vector completely.
The security software scans the autorun.inf file on the flash drive afterwards to find out if it references additional files that may be dangerous to the computer system. The executable files that are found will also be locked automatically by it.
You can use the USB Flash drive normally afterwards but with the limitation that locked files are not accessible and cannot be run because they are locked by USB Guardian.
Locked files can be unlocked in the program interface which is helpful if harmless applications have been locked by USB Guardian. It is furthermore possible to use the interface to delete locked files, and to configure other options such as running USB Guardian on system start.
Verdict
USB Guardian is a handy security program for Windows devices that protects the computer from attacks using autorun files on USB devices.
USB Guardian is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.
One thing that is missing is an option to whitelist programs on drives. If you work with the same Flash drive all the time and know that executable files on it are safe, you may want an option that prevents USB Guardian from locking it each time the device is connected to the PC.
I love auto-playing videos. It saves me a thousand clicks a day.
And probably costs your a good amount of data, if you don’t have a good plan. Better would be an opt-in than opt-out.
I hate auto-playing videos. Never click on them. Never watch them. Just one more manic marketing/advertising ploy that is rampant on the internet, to grab your attention intrusively, greedily, and glaringly obnoxiously. Second worst is those stupid timed pop-ups to get you to sign-up for something. No wonder so many people have screwed up attention spans.
Telegram is introducing Telepathic Videos, they play in your head and can’t be stopped unless you turn off the app, put the device in your freezer (no signal, batteries die quickly) then go outside into reality. Scary proposition but definitely worth trying.
I appreciate the tip, Ashwin — thanks!
i fucking hate autoplaying videos
YESSSS! :))))
Thanks!
Quick, concise and effective instructions!
Thank you so much!
You saved my life. Thank you! =)
Thanks a lot for the tip!
Unfortunately there’s still no way to stop an autoplaying video once you’ve started it. So you get to choose; either don’t watch it at all… or watch it looping for all eternity.
More great UI design from your friendly neighbourhood Telegram devs. The people who brought you “no scrollbars on OSX” and “allowing other people to remotely delete data on your devices”
Not true, at least not on my Telegram desktop PC setup; I started playing a video that I couldn’t find a way to stop playing in a loop over and over again, which led me to find this article.
I followed the article’s instructions and toggled off the autoplay for videos and GIFs for all three categories, Private, Group and Channel, and once I did that and saved the settings the previously perma-looping video stopped and the UI was replaced with a blank window and a ‘Play’ symbol.
Thanks a lot!
Thank you, someone posting some disturbing surgery stuff in a group and I’m not keen on having it replay over and over.
Thank you! They really went out of their way to hide this setting, didn’t they. I wonder if that was just incompetence, or outright malice.
Hmm, on the website it states: “There’s no shady stuff as 100% of the website is open source.” No, it required some scripts for the basic website to even load… It can be classified as untrustworthy and poor quality design.
Martin, where do you predict this post will be sent today, will it reach the correct thread or be redirected to some random thread on AI, Social media fads, or be tapped onto a long debate on browser bug comments. Your visitor comments database is kaput! :-/
Martin, the [#comment-4572556] post did weirdly redirect to: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/14/is-beeper-safe/] and now it seems to be back in the correct “.sexy” thread. Maybe it’s a homing pigeon.
However, the last (currently) visible response to the “Wi-Fi” thread, instead nested in the “beeper” one. It also looks like the other posts people made in that “wireless” thread, migrated south and flew into others threads. It’s like Russian roulette with replies trying to reach the right destination nowadays – around here.
privacy.sexy may not be a great resource – for example, one of the scripts in the ‘configure programs’ scripts for Firefox enables ‘privacy.firstparty.isolate’ – FPI is obsolete and has been replaced with dFPI which can be enabled in ‘preferences > privacy & security > enhanced tracking protection’ by selecting the ‘strict’ option
another script disables WebRTC to prevent IP leakage (VPN, etc.) – this is apparently no longer necessary (see ‘[SECTION 2000]’ of the arkenfox js)
Somebody should really do something about the comments chaos. Random dates and topics. Is AI running gHACKS?
Yet another topic with unsynced responses. I sure hope a solution is found soon.
Martin, if this website is really yours, perthaps, we need some “command decisions” from you to get it back on track??
I have reached out to Martin personally and to his credit he replied very quickly. He has informed me that they are aware of the problems and are attempting to fix it.
Martin is no longer involved in the technical management of the site so I imagine if we want to ask someone then our comments would perhaps be better directed towards Softonic.
Love stuff like this.
PORTMASTER
I stopped using this because it doesn’t prevent DNSAPI.dll from allowing the PC to make sneaky connections to Micro$oft. I put my Acrylic M$ blocklist into the Custom Filter option but it Micro$oft URLs would still bypass it (and of course the regular Hosts file).
Back to Acryllic and Tinywall! Most people don’t care about M$ spying on them, but some of us still do. So even though Portmaster ‘owns’ port 52, it still let’s DNSAPI.dll over-ride one’s privacy options.
Oh, the irony!
*Sorry- Port 53 of course, and Acrylic!!
@Martin Brinkmann,
I am the first posted to this (2023/09/09: Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues) article.
All of the existing comments are about other articles unrelated to “This article published on 2023/09/09: Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues.”
Should relink them all properly.
@Martin Brinkmann,
You mentioned that comment associations have been “fixed”. but The actual situations are still associated with other articles.
Below is my case,
Posted to:
Notepad++ 8.5.7 fixes 4 security issues: 2023/09/09:
>> ghacks.net/2023/09/09/notepad-8-5-7-fixes-4-security-issues/#comment-4573427
Linked to:
How to disable autoplay videos in Telegram Desktop: 2020/01/02
>> ghacks.net/2020/01/02/how-to-disable-autoplay-videos-in-telegram-desktop/#comment-4573427
Disheartening news for me, as I really rely on SUMO for the updates for the last 5 years or so.
Others I tried–even ones with big brand names–are junks compared to how extensive and useful SUMO’s features are.
Anyone can recommend a list of 2-3 softwares at par with SUMO? Thank you.
That’s very sad news.
I’ve always been a fan of SUMO and DUMO but I’ve not used any of their other applications.
I purchased a lifetime license of Sumo in 2018 and I was very satisfied with this program.
There are not many alternatives and those that exist are not as effective.
See alternatives here : https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/
Secunia was also abandoned some time ago.
Odd . . . many of their programs were updated within 2023:
https://www.kcsoftwares.com/?download
I haven’t used any of their products, but I have a bookmark to the site. Chances are good that Major Geeks will archive all the products, a sort of repository for KC Software.
Bummer!
There in no alternative to SUMo which scans for software on all drives and support portable apps.
There are many alternatives to SUMO.
https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/
Whether they cover as many programs is the problem.
Patch My PC Home Updater: https://hiberhernandez.com/descargas/patch-my-pc-updater/
Zero Install: https://hiberhernandez.com/descargas/zero-install/
Sad news indeed. Been using SUMo for a long time.
As mentioned, an article about alternatives would be welcome.
Kaspersky will be happy, they’ve been flagging SUMo as “incompatible software” for years, only because it competes with their KIS’s Software Updater junk. No “Ignore” option for their blatant anti-competitive deceit. Of course.
—
What’s with all the old unrelated posts crap? @Martin Brinkmann can you please get rid of that time-wasting nonsense, it makes reading and finding genuine comments a serious PITA!
Very sad news indeed.
Before SUMo I was using WebMon, a free software which was monitoring web sites for changes and it was very good, but the software was discontinued and stopped working correctly on https sites for which it was not programmed.
I think that I will return to this kind of software, I am actually trying the free version of “WebSite-Watcher” which is a shareware, and I’ll try to find some other softwares of this kind.
Actually this is the only kind of software which would be able to “find” new versions for installed softwares but also for portable softwares.
Under: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/11/kc-softwares-maker-of-sumo-and-other-apps-is-shutting-down/
to:Sputnik
>Before SUMo I was using WebMon, a free software which was monitoring web sites for changes and it was very good, but the software was discontinued and stopped working correctly on https sites for which it was not programmed.
There is modern recreation of WebMon, which support https (and a number of other additional features), called WebChangeMonitor:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/webchangemon/
Also, in addition, I can recommend a somewhat similar program Ketarin (HP: ketarin org) – it has not been updated for quite a while (but not as long as WebMon), but is fully functional. Its plus is that it can also download files (in fact, this is its main function – after detecting changes, like WebMon, download a given updated file). Everything must be configured manually, as in WebMon, so as an alternative to SUMO may not be for everyone, but for someone who used WebMon – very much so.
@Lemegeton
Thank you very much for this info, I will check both of these programs !
I prefer alert of new versions rather than manual updating so the installer/portable app can be scanned via VirusTotal before installation. SUMO gave the alert and a right-click option to open the app folder, which was all I ever used.
Wingetui is an alternative to SUMO but it is not as comprehensive. It misses seeing some of my software. The article above mentions ‘several good alternatives’. Alternativeto lists a lot but lacks https://alternativeto.net/software/sumo/ but does not give thorough reviews.
Has anyone experience with the free version of IObit Software Updater?
(Yes I know that IO does everything to overwhelm your PC, and Malwarebytes is still very angry/aggressive towards IO, but they have some very good (free) programs, and you can rely on that they are not one-man-projects).
I have tried it. It sneaky installs a brunch of other programs which causes an almost uncontrollable chaos. So not advisable (through the updater program itself seems to be very functional).
Sad to see this. I enjoyed using SUMO over the years! Thank you KC Softwares for all the great applications.
I prefer alert of new versions rather than manual updating so the installer/portable app can be scanned via VirusTotal before installation. SUMO gave the alert and a right-click option to open the app folder, which was all I ever used.
Wingetui is an alternative to SUMO but it is not as comprehensive.
Ketarin (https://ketarin.org/index.php) looks interesting and I just downloaded this morning to start tinkering. It takes a bit of work to configure each piece of software. When first run it downloads the software on each link. Subsequently, it downloads new versions. It is portable, so you could load it plus downloads onto a USB stick and use it to install the same apps on different (compatible) computers.
https://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/22/keep-software-installers-up-to-date/
Sorry to hear about SUMO.
Patch My PC is another alternative.
Plus winget, or WingetUI
The new version (10) of uCheck now allows mentioning custom locations.
I did a test with installer and portable version, but without success.
I asked their support if this option is reserved for the paid version.
Their answer:
“Hi,
Thanks for your message.
Yes it should be scanned in the Free version as well. However, it’s just client capability for now.
We are in the process of adding portable links in our database right now, so it’s normal if there’s very few (or not) software found in these locations.”
?
Sad, SUMP was by far the best program for finding the latest updates, even for obscure apps. Would like to see them open source their entire line up, so someone else can take up the torch! Would be sad to see it go down to no good end! Thank you SUMO for all the good work you’ve done for the public good!
Just used SUMo, Patch My PC, and winget.
SUMo found 9 major, and 16 minor updates
Patch My PC found 8 updates
winget found 11
False negatives: determines there was no update, when in fact there is an update
False positive: determines there is an update, when in fact there is no update
winget has a lot of issues.
False negative: it didn’t list updates for Chrome, and Thunderbird
Also had one false positive, i.e., there was an update when in fact it doesn’t exist.
The Microsoft C++ Redistributable updates leave old ones behind, so winget reports then out of date.
There was a false positive for Patch My PC.
SUMo is the most comprehensive and accurate of the three products tested.
I did not find any false positives or false negatives.
I originally used Secunia to check for updates until is was discontinued.
Just ran SUMo, Patch My PC, and winget.
Both SUMo and Patch My PC found an update for LibreOffice, but the winget upgrade command missed it.
The winget list command shows LibreOffice, but no update.
Damn,searched about “what is portmaster by gnu” though i downloaded it days ago,but i forgot the reason,then came to this article,scrooling to see content covered like ~40% then scroll to why to see and wow,lot of comments :)
though its good practice to keep them in least showing some count,click for more,still this one load for all time saves Data for everyone (+ saving server loading for you site owner)
@Helmholz Watson thank you,i would have installed that software,which still in setup waiting for my permission
I saw it saved at drive:c by default,but i try to store most tools in other drives to save storage,got irk/uncomfort,to saerch over it & now i am here
well,thin about it,if a software installed on windows,which is the runner of all,like which would stay safe?
other hand there’s backdoors from hardware level (intel laughs with partywine with agencies) and then what?
there goes even more,from networks to most of internet
whether we go by our favor (influenced by media propaganda,social cultural changing with time,economy,etc,.) or by limitted data (known censorship,*politics,elite families,how about give them their own sins back * 02:41),its like we happily dive in the cliff like the sheeple or by pushed to keep in “control” (now the readers,fellow human beings can see the scenario)
then what to do?
simple,dont rely on anything too much :)
ready to question our own beliefs,like when we have a passion,like singing,we criticize,encourage,guide ourselves in split seconds continuously internally,leads to well growth
just like that,think wisely,live well,grow,build your life,dont fall to lies,traps,teach others,like teaching the method to light :) (freethink!)
even while i type,windows 10/hp (15db worse model made purposedly) laptop gives me auto fill recommendations,what to say ;)
gotta become well in life to be fully indepemdent to own our life fully,until then its all learning & trying,
until the next time,
pass good to the world,like someone walked steps became a path for many people regardless of time,we can be like that,without expecting back (some good in life,giving back to world,as its the great fukffiling thing for a human as a social being with top of nature)
wish all be well :)
from kallakurichi,TN,India
30.09.2023 02:38*42 extra,check am ist
edit:
i fell there’s a bug or some minor issue in webpage,cause this article is from may 2023,while my comment goes to jan 202 article of “how to disable auto play videos at telegram”
https://www.ghacks.net/2022/05/16/first-look-at-portmaster-an-open-source-cross-platform-network-monitor/
Dear Martin,please check it
we know you have much work,issues,tasks to care of daily life (living is tougher since covid era),still to save future chaos + better management :)
Thank you
wish all be well :)
(wish my comment stay here,while i randomly fogor shift+ key with enter+ key for symbols)
30.09.2023 02:52/53(not speed,just waited) am ist
Arch Linux weekly data collection app is not installed, this is good news. Version 1.2.4 breaks wifi auto login. Not a good idea to run scripts for FF. What we did, is copy all the -rm and sudo -rm cmd lines and run them one shot.
Good app and about time we have something to clean Linux junk. Thanks for sharing mate,