Encrypting a USB flash drive is quick and easy in Windows 10. The PRO version of Windows 10 will allow anyone to activate Microsoft’s built in bitlocker technology to encrypt an entire flash drive, or part of a USB flash drive.

Microsoft BitLocker is a disk encryption technology designed to enhance data security by encrypting entire disk volumes on Windows operating systems. Introduced with Windows Vista and included in subsequent versions, BitLocker provides a robust defense against unauthorized access and data breaches.

The primary purpose of BitLocker is to protect sensitive data in case a device is lost, stolen, or accessed by an unauthorized user. It uses full-disk encryption to secure the entire contents of a disk, including the operating system, system files, and user data. Even if someone physically removes the hard drive and attempts to access it on another system, the data remains inaccessible without the proper authentication credentials.

BitLocker employs various encryption methods, with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) being a commonly used algorithm.

The encryption process is transparent to the user once configured, and access is granted through authentication methods like PINs and passwords.

Below are nine screen shots and simply follow along in your Windows 10 Pro computer and do what you see below. The process is very easy to do. The longest part of this entire setup is the encryption of the USB stick itself. The time required to encrypt the drive will depend on a couple of factors, such as the GB capacity of the USB drive and the processing power of your computer. In the example below, using a USB 2.0 device with a 16GB capacity the encryption time took only 4 minutes.

Easily get the hard coded serial number of a USB flash drive with either the Command prompt in Windows or Powershell. Of the two, Powershell is easier. Below are the instructions. After the instructions there is a bit more information about the different types of serial numbers which can be found associated with a Mass Storage Device (USB flash drive) so be sure to read that part as well, so you get what you want!

In the Windows Search bar, type “powershell” and click Enter

The Powershell utility will run and simply copy and past the following:

Get-WmiObject Win32_DiskDrive | select Model, Name, InterfaceType, SerialNumber

The screen shot below shows the hard drive of the system and a USB flash drive. The command doesn’t clearly label each, so be a little aware of the devices connected compared to what is listed. It is suggested to have only one USB device connected while running Powershell so it is easy to identify the device.

For the Command prompt, go to the USB flash drive itself. In the navigation field at the top (where you can type things) type in cmd. This will open the Command prompt for the USB flash drive itself. From here, copy and paste the following:

wmic path Win32_USBControllerDevice get Dependent | find “USBSTOR”

The screen shot below shows the same result as the Powershell command, BUT the string does have an extra &0 which is not part of the USB flash drive device. So a bit of parsing is required when looking at the number, or parsing of code if you plan to use the Command prompt to find the device serial number programmatically.

From the two above the Powershell solution is a bit more elegant.

However; may we suggest a third option? If you find yourself on this page, there is a high probability there are other features you can benefit from, like making an Image file of your USB stick, or speed benchmarking the performance of your flash drive.

If that is the case, then we recommend our free program, no installation required, standalone exe file that will fetch the serial number of a device as well as provide a tool to create image files or speed test your USB flash drive.

You may download the free program here. Again, no installation required, this is a standalone exe file that can run from your flash drive or hard drive:

FREE DOWNLOAD: Nexcopy USBScrub

Users can turn disable USB flash drive pop up messages in Windows 10 by performing a very simple step in Settings. While it may seem counterproductive to turn off USB notifications in Windows 10, once you’ve been using Windows for a while you will likely want to reduce the number of pop-up messages.

There are two ways to disable USB flash drive messages in Windows. Performing a RegEdit or modifing a Settings feature in the Windows GUI

Disable the USB flash drive pop up message via Windows Registry Edit

• Open RegEdit by typing “regedit” in the Search bar
• Navigate to: HOKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Miscrosoft\Shell\USB
• Click the USB folder on the left of the screen to highlight the registry entries for \USB\
• On the right side of screen select “NotifyOnUsbErrors” by clicking on it
• Right click and select “Modify”
• Set the value to “0” (zero). Zero is off, One is on

NOTE: Most users will receive a message saying they do not have privileges to modify the registry value. That is meant by design, and please see the comments at the end of this article for why.

Disable the USB flash drive pop up message via Settings

• Type “settings” in the Seach bar of Windows
• Select “Devices”
• Select the USB tab near/at the bottom on left
• Uncheck “Notify me if there are issues connecting USB devices

The second method via Settings is the preferred method because changing registry entries is not recommended unless the user is very experienced with computers. Windows 10 does a good job of not allowing users make registry changes that would crash their computer or brick the operating system, but the risk is still there.

If you received some sort of permissions message when attempting our regedit method, I would stay away from trying to resolve that security message. The reason Miscrosoft locks downt he registry in certain areas is to provide a more secure computer system for the user and reduce potential risk of malware or hackers getting control of your computer.

Over the years, numerous reports have come out about how hackers will expose certain USB protocols to insert malware or take control of a system. The registry is the main point of focus for hackers.

If you are persistent about changing the registry entries the first thing you can try is running RegEdit as Administrator. If that doesn’t resolve your issue then you may Google search for your specific error message and see if another website offers up a solution.

Sometimes Windows cannot delete the system volume on the disk because the partition table is corrupt. The solution is very easy and all the tools required to solve this problem are pre-installed and ready to use on any Windows 10 (+) computer.

In short, the Disk Management utility cannot delete the volume because there is corrupt data in the partition table of the device. This issue we are talking about is most likely associated with a USB flash drive and sometimes USB hard drives.

One of the reasons a user will get a corrupt partition table is from formatting the USB device over and over again. Sometimes computers just don’t do what they are supposed to do! Surprise!

A common reason a user would like to delete the volume of a flash drive is to start “clean” with a fresh device. The reason to start “clean” is because some other function or task is not working as expected. For example, a user trying to create an digital image file (.img) from a physical USB flash drive continues to create corrupt image files. Well, when you start with a corrupt partition table, you’ll end up with a corrupt image file.

Another reason could be a user is trying to make a two partition flash drive using Disk Management. However, you cannot make a two partition flash drive if you cannot delete the volume in the first place!

We did a great write up about “How to partition a USB flash drive in Windows” a while back. A good read if you have the time.

The below steps will show you exactly how to fix this problem. There is a video at the bottom of this post showing the steps.

• Connect your flash drive
• In the search field in Windows (bottom left white box that says “Type here to search”) type “Disk Management” and click ENTER on the keyboard. Disk Management should pop up.
• In the search field in Windows type “diskpart” and click ENTER on the keyboard. DiskPart will either pop open, or a dialogue box will ask if you want to open it, click YES
• In DiskPart type “list disk“
• From the list provided determine which disk number represents your USB flash drive or hard drive
• In the screen shot below, our disk is #1
• Type “select disk x” *In this example we typed “select disk 1”
• Type “clean“
• When that is complete, toggle over to the Disk Management utility
• Right click the box which represents the USB flash drive and select “New Simple Volume“
• Follow the prompts in the wizard to complete the process

After completing the above steps the flash drive is now ready for use. In addition, if it is required to go back and delete the volume, say to make a two partition flash drive, you can now do this without the error message “This Request Is Not Supported”

Here is a video for the above process:

Doing some research for why some HP computers do not boot from a USB flash drive, I came across Ventoy.

Ventoy is a software tool to create a USB flash drive bootable in anything and supports the most common image files.

We tried Ventoy to make a USB flash drive bootable, and it works like a champ. In fact, the software is so easy to use, it is worth commenting about a previous post we did. A while back we talked about how to check if your USB flash drive is bootable, and to be honest, rather than putting in the time and work to read the article and do the steps, your time is better used flashing your drive with Ventoy. The result is a bootable USB flash drive for any device.

Ventoy is an open source tool for creating bootable flash drives when using image files like ISO, IMG, WIM, VHD and EFI files. The project team tested over 900 image files which tested successfully on over 90% of the distro packages.

What we like about this solution is no need to flash the drive with boot code using the source CD-ROM like so many tutorials out there (for Windows at least) because the Ventoy tool creates a second partition which all the boot code and the Ventoy utility flashes that partition with the boot code needed. You can see from the Disk Management screenshot below there are now two partitions on the tested flash drive.

You can tell there have been plenty of Ventoy updates and what is (also) very nice about their software tool is the display of Ventoy version on your device. Nice feature to cross reference if your device is current or needs an update. The update process is just as quick as the original creation of the bootable device.

Considering the above, it goes without saying it is easier than ever to make a USB flash drive bootable in anything without having to re-do the work. This software eliminates the need to re-create a bootable image to USB and flash it over and over. Simply update the image file content, not the boot strap code.

The only thing even slightly annoying, which is easy enough to correct, is the Volume name for the primary partition defaults to “Ventoy”. Would be nice if an edit feature was in the software to customize this without the additional step of renaming the volume after-the-fact.

Here is a list of features copied from the website. The project is open source and we suggest making a donation if you do in fact use the code. It’s only fair, right!

• 100% open source
• Very simple to use
• Fast (limited only by the speed of copying ISO file)
• Can be installed in USB, local disk, SSD, NVMe, SD card
• Directly boot from ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files, no extraction needed
• Support to browse and boot ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files in local disk
• No need to be continuous in disk for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files
• Both MBR and GPT partition styles are supported
• x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI, MIPS64EL UEFI supported
• IA32/x86_64 UEFI Secure Boot supported
• Persistence supported
• Windows auto installation supported
• RHEL7/8, CentOS7/8, SUSE, Ubuntu Server auto installation supported
• FAT32/exFAT/NTFS/UDF/XFS/Ext2(3)(4) supported for main partition
• ISO files larger than 4GB supported
• Native boot menu style for Legacy and UEFI
• Most types of OS supported, 900+ ISO files tested
• Linux vDisk (vhd/vdi/raw…) boot solution
• Not only boot but also complete installation process
• Menu dynamically switchable between ListView and TreeView mode
• “Ventoy Compatible” concept
• Plugin framework and GUI plugin configurator
• Injection files to runtime environment
• Boot configuration file dynamically replacement
• Highly customizable theme and menu style
• USB drive write-protected support
• USB normal use unaffected
• Data nondestructive during version upgrade
• No need to update Ventoy when a new distro is released

I think it is safe to say RUFUS is probably a thing of the past given this new tool. The Ventoy tool is great for making any USB flash drive bootable.

How To: Hide Files on a USB Flash Drive

This article, “How To: Hide Files on a USB Flash Drive,” explains two free methods to conceal files on a USB drive using built-in Windows features. One method is quick and basic; the other is more advanced and harder to detect.

Overview of the Two Methods

Method 1: Standard Hidden Attribute

This method is the easiest. Anyone can right-click a file or folder, go to Properties, and select the Hidden checkbox. This will hide the file unless a user has Windows configured to show hidden files.

Pros: Easy and fast
Cons: Easily bypassed

Method 2: System Hidden Attribute

This method hides a file using both the system and hidden attributes. Windows will not show these files—even if “Show hidden files and folders” is enabled—unless the user also disables “Hide protected operating system files.”

Pros: Harder to detect
Cons: Slightly more technical

How to Hide a File Using the Hidden Attribute

Right-click the file or folder ? Properties ? check the Hidden box ? click OK.

If Windows is set to not show hidden files, it disappears from File Explorer. However, it still shows in the Command Prompt:

If the user has “View hidden files and folders” enabled, the file is visible again:

How to Use the System Hidden Attribute

Let’s take it a step further and apply the system attribute in addition to the hidden flag.

Step 1: Prepare the File

Place the file (e.g., text.txt) onto the USB flash drive.

Step 2: Open Command Prompt on the USB Drive

Click in the File Explorer address bar, type cmd, and hit Enter.

Step 3: Apply the System Hidden Flags

At the prompt, type:

attrib +s +h D:\text.txt

Replace D:\ with your actual USB drive letter.

Type exit to close the prompt. Then unplug and reconnect the USB drive. The file will now be invisible—even with hidden files shown—unless the system file setting is also disabled.

Confirming the Hidden File

Open Command Prompt and type:

dir /a:h

You’ll see hidden files listed—even the system hidden ones—but they won’t appear in File Explorer.

How to Open or Restore the Hidden File

Option 1: Show Protected Files (Not Recommended)

Enable “Hide protected operating system files” in Windows Explorer. This reveals system-hidden files but also exposes critical OS files to potential deletion.

Option 2: Remove Attributes

In Command Prompt, type:

attrib -s -h D:\text.txt

Option 3: Open Without Changing Attributes

To open the file without unhiding it, use:

notepad D:\text.txt

Need Stronger File Protection?

If you require stronger security, consider a Secure Disk solution. These USB flash drives hide entire partitions until a password is entered. They’re hardware-based, making them immune to software workarounds or hacks.

For more info, check out Nexcopy’s Secure Flash Drives.

This article will show you how to create a website shortcut that works from a flash drive. The article includes the instructions, a video on the instructions and a template file one can download and tweak for their own use.

The reason for this topic of creating a website shortcut on a flash drive is because dragging and dropping your desktop shortcut to a flash drive doesn’t work.

The shortcut on a desktop is a relative path of the computer to the website. Which means the shortcut doesn’t transfer well to a flash drive for others to use. Rather than a working shortcut, the shortcut either errors off or takes you to a generic page within the browser.

Creating a shortcut that works on a USB flash drive is very easy. Like, crazy easy.

• Open Notepad (type notepad in search and click Enter)
• Type: [InternetShortcut]
• Type website landing page: URL=https://www.getusb.info
• Now Save As the file to your USB flash drive with .URL extension.

You have now successfully made a website shortcut on your USB flash drive.

This link can be used on any flash drive or hard drive or desktop location. The shortcut is truly a universal file that will work from any location.

Here is the text file which you can use as a template if the above instructions are too complicated or you simply don’t want to perform the steps.

Here is the video: How To: Create a Website Shortcut on a USB Drive

Sticky labels are not a professional solution to label flash drives. Today we look at an alternative for labeling a flash drive which suits the demands of a business and/or professional.

There is a clear difference between labeling your flash drive because of personal use and the need to label a flash drive which is sold, shipped or mailed to a paying customer.

A common method to label a flash drive is with a sticky label applied to the outside of the flash drive, or a paper merchandise tag with some notes about the contents hanging from the lanyard loop. Albeit a good method for a personal flash drive, not the most professional or durable flash drive label tag when sold as a commercial product.

It is a common requirement from a company to include more information about the contents of a flash drive than what the space of a sticky label or tag will allow. In addition, the durability of said label should withstand environmental conditions which surpass the limits of a merchandise tag. Examples include:

• Detailed instructions for how the flash drive should be used
• Software or firmware version information (longer than sticky label space)
• Medical compliance information about the contents
• Audit tracking of ownership / possession (longer than sticky label space)

From the examples above, the question becomes:

What flash drive label can be used which is professional looking while having the durability and space needed to print the information required?

The best flash drive label we have found is the plastic credit card sized label offered by Nexcopy.

The CC USB Label is a white PVC plastic product which is 85mm wide by 54mm tall and 0.75mm thick with a total weight of 4 grams. The CC USB Label is printable on both sides and includes a lanyard for connecting to a USB flash drive.

The CC USB Label accepts full color print and with a white background, each color is vibrant and great contrast for users to easily read the printed information. Using an eco-solvent printer, the ink is permanent and water proof. The information printed will last in various weather conditions and environmental conditions.

Nexcopy offers their eco-solvent LOGO-EZ printer for in-house production. Nexcopy also offers print services for those not wanting to invest in a flatbed eco-solvent printer.

The credit card size and the light weight of the card make it a perfect complement as a flash drive label. With double sided print capability, a company has a great deal of space to print the information required for their product.

From the image below, one can see the flash drive label is ideal for printed bar codes for scanning during product fulfillment, shipping and receiving. Printing a more precise image like a QR code could improve user experience, such as streamlining a product registration process or direct landing page for a how-to video for product instruction.

The plastic PVC material is ideal for printing color logos and highlighting specific information. Having the flexibility for color print lends itself to emphasizing certain bits of information the manufacturer wants the end-user to notice.

In addition, the CC USB Label allows custom branding to match the requirements from the marketing department to ensure branding compliance is matched – getting stuck with black only printed sticky labels or merchandise tags decrease the overall perceived value of the product and could fall out of compliance of a company’s marketing guidelines.

Although some of this information sounds overkill for a flash drive label, keep in mind this solution is designed for a business or professional who might be required to provide very detailed labels for the product in which the flash drive is associated with.

I want to copy protect a digital photo on a USB flash drive. The answer wasn’t as obvious as I had hoped, but I did find it.

Below is the process I used to get what I needed.

The first thing I want to emphasize is that I want to protect a digital copy of a photo rather than a physical copy of a photo.

So, how to prevent a digital photo from being copied from a USB flash drive is a difficult question to answer. My first thought is about the medium I intend to use to send a digital photo to someone.

• Do I offer a download link?
• Do I send them a digital copy on a storage device like a portable hard drive or USB flash drive?
• Do I provide them a weblink to view the file from a hosted server?

The more I considered a delivery method, the more questions I had.

My first thought was to host the photo on a private webpage. Only users with access to the page could view the photo.

This isn’t going to work. I realized that once the viewer is on the page and viewing the photo, they can save it or screen capture it. After that, they could share the digital photo with whoever they wanted. There isn’t much protection here.

My next thought was to put the digital photo in a password-protected zip file. That is a good idea. The photo can only be viewed by someone who knows the password.

Oh wait, that doesn’t work either. I end up with the same problem as the hosted webpage. Once the file is accessed, the user can do anything they want.

So it occurs to me… I keep returning to an encryption solution rather than a copy protection solution. Encryption is useful because only those with the correct password can access the photo; however, it is not the same as my ultimate goal, which is to copy protect a digital photo and prevent it from being copied.

I guess you can say encryption is a way of keeping the honest people… well, honest.

I need a way to protect my photo regardless of the recipient’s intent. I realized I needed a solution in which everyone can see the photo but no one can do anything with it. Is it even possible to find such a solution?

When I was talking with a neighbor who is an IT guy, he mentioned a concept that I’d heard of before but didn’t apply to my thinking. Rather than a digital method of sending the photo, he proposed a type of physical dongle that held the photo. He explained that without the physical device, viewing the photo is impossible.

The lightbulb went on!

There is nothing worse than a blank screen after pressing the power button on your computer. Your heart sinks, your shoulders drop, and a sense of anxiety quickly sets in.

Why now? You have emails to check, orders to process, work to finish.

It always seems like computer problems happen at the worst possible time.

A quick glance at the computer reveals a USB flash drive sticking out of a USB port. Could this be the problem? You remove the USB device and restart the computer.

A few moments later, the system boots normally. So what happened? Why will your computer not boot with a USB device plugged in?

In this scenario, the explanation is simple. When the USB device is connected, the computer attempts to boot from the flash drive instead of the internal hard drive.

At some point in the life of that USB drive, it was made bootable and boot-strap code was written to it. Because the BIOS detects boot code on the device, it assumes the USB drive contains an operating system and attempts to start from it.

This does not mean every flash drive will cause this issue. Only USB drives that were previously made bootable can interfere with startup. Most standard flash drives are not bootable by default.

The other important factor

Using the CMD prompt in Windows 10 or 11, it is a one-line request to get the serial number of a USB flash drive. The serial number in question is the device serial number, which follows the device and remains the same value used to identify the physical device. This serial number is written into read-only memory on the flash drive and cannot be duplicated, deleted, or modified. This is different than the volume serial number, which we covered in a previous post.

Steps are very simple:

# Insert a flash drive (or multiple drives)

# Select a flash drive by clicking on the drive letter

# In the Explorer path field type cmd

This will open the Command Prompt.

# Copy the text below and press Enter

wmic path Win32_USBControllerDevice get Dependent | find “USBSTOR”

This command asks Windows to search the system for any Mass Storage devices (flash drives) connected to the computer’s USB host controller.

You do need to parse some information out, because more than just the serial number is returned.

The serial number of the USB flash drive is listed last, and there is a &0 at the end which is not part of the serial number. The hardware serial number can vary in length, so there is no fixed guideline. In practice, we commonly see serial numbers ranging from 8 to 30 alphanumeric characters.

Using a third-party utility, you can confirm that the serial number reported by the software matches the same serial number shown by the CMD prompt method.

USB flash drives are indispensable for students.

They are a fantastic tool to store and use documents and other important data. Moreover, talk to any student and they will let you know how they carry a USB flash drive—attached to key rings, customized with colors, shapes, objects, and much more.

With a USB flash drive, you can use your computers or laptops efficiently whether you’re at home, at university, or at school. There may be times when you want to continue work even after school hours; therefore, carrying a USB flash drive is very handy.

With all that being said, USB flash drives can cost students a lot, especially if you’ve lost one and have to buy another. Therefore, here are a few ways you can get USB flash drives for free.

Free USBs With a Purchase

There are many computer stores, and stores for cameras, cell phones, and other tech-related products that give flash drives for free with purchases.

Itpstyli

Itpstyli is a company that makes over 1,000 styli for CMM, gear measurement equipment, and machine centers. To get a flash drive for free, you have to add it to the cart and save the cart as a shopping list.

If you require help with homework or need assistance in technical disciplines, feel free to get in touch with cwassignments.com to get assignment help online from experts.

MyBioSource.com

The company sells biological reagents. If you’re in the field of biology and need products in bulk, you can get a free USB flash drive, or even more, based on the items in your purchase. Your free flash drive will provide 8GB of storage.

You must also keep an eye on Best Buy, Tiger Direct, and Newegg, as these tech retailers often give away tech items, including USB flash drives. They may also give away products when you refer people, share their promotional posts, subscribe to their newsletters, maintain a loyal online presence, or purchase products from them.

Flash Drive Retailers

As you may have realized by now, there are very few stores that sell only USB flash drives. However, they do exist, and the chances of you getting a free USB flash drive from them can be higher. You can accomplish this through online contests, giveaways, store promos, affiliate programs, and more.

USBholic

USBholic is a Texas-based retailer that sells flash drives. You can pick a cute design from their store and choose the 4GB option. When you do so, you’ll see the price listed as $0.01 per flash drive. Even though it’s not completely free, it’s close. USBholic ships flash drives to Europe, the US, Asia, and Oceania. However, please check the shipping costs to your location to see if it’s worth ordering.