Control USB Devices in Office

Decide the Policy Before Touching the Tool

A USB control tool only enforces decisions — it cannot make them for you. Before installing anything, write down three simple answers on one page: which devices are blocked (unknown USB storage — pen drives and external drives nobody owns), what stays allowed (the office's own trusted drives, plus keyboards, printers and scanners that daily work depends on), and who can approve an exception when urgent work needs a blocked drive.

Install the Server and Deploy the Agents — Pilot First

Device Control Plus works like most ManageEngine products: one central server on a PC or server that stays on, and a small agent on every office computer. The agent is what actually blocks the device and reports back — the console only sends it instructions. Install the server, then deploy the agent using the console, exactly as shown in the video.

Block Storage, Not USB Itself

The policy the video builds blocks USB storage — pen drives and external hard drives that can carry data away. It does not block the USB port itself. That distinction is the whole game: keyboards, mice, printers and barcode scanners are different device classes, and they keep working while unknown storage is stopped.

There is also a middle path the tool supports: cap transfers by file type and file size — for example, documents may move but large archive and video files may not.

Build the Trusted Device List

Blocking everything unknown only works if the drives the office legitimately uses still work. Device Control Plus keeps a trusted devices list: register only the pen drives the office owns, and those drives work on office PCs while every other drive stays blocked.

Keep a Fast Exception Route for Urgent Work

Urgent work will happen — a client arrives with files on his own pen drive, or a presentation sits on a drive that is not on the trusted list. Decide in advance how that gets approved: who can grant temporary access, for which drive, and for how long. In the video's setup this exception route is part of the policy, not an afterthought.

Without a fast exception route, people do not stop working — they find workarounds, usually personal email and cloud uploads, which leak the same data with no record at all.

Turn On the Audit Trail From Day One

Every plug-in should leave a record: which user, on which PC, plugged in which device, and which files were copied. Device Control Plus reports this from the console, and the video turns the audit trail on as part of the setup — not later, when an incident makes you wish it existed.

Review the reports regularly. The record itself does most of the work: once staff know plug-ins are logged, unknown drives quietly stop appearing.

Roll Out in Groups and Review the Policy

Once the pilot group runs clean, widen the rollout department by department, keeping the trusted list and the exception route under review as new devices and new staff arrive.