How to prevent users from running programs from the removable disks:
If other users of your computer often install unauthorized programs or run games from the removable disks (such as floppy, Zip, CD-ROM drives, etc.), cluttering your hard drive and sometimes even infecting it with the viruses, you would probably want to restrict their ability to run programs from the removable drives. The obvious solution could be to use Folder Guard to assign the "no access" to the removable drive and that would stop it all, but what if you still want the users to be able to use the removable drive to backup their documents, or to open files other than programs? No problem, Folder Guard is flexible enough to allow for such protection.
The tool of choice in a situation like this would be the "filters" of Folder Guard. Filters let you fine-tune the protection Folder Guard based on the names of the files, folders they are located in, and the module names accessing the files. For example, with filters you can allow one program access files in a particular folder, while all other programs would be denied such access, and so on. Folder Guard comes with several pre-configured filters, designed to perform various tasks, which you can see by choosing the View - Filters command from its menu.
To solve the problem of users running the programs from the removable drives, we need to create a new filter, which would apply only to the executable files located on the removable drives, but would not apply to all other files. Then, we would assign the "no access" to such a filter, and that would restrict access to the programs on the removable drives, while allowing access to the rest of the files.
For the sake of example, we will create a filter that would apply only to the files located on the floppy drive A:. If you want to pally it to other removable files that you may have as well, you will need to modify the instructions below accordingly.
Step 1. Create a new filter
Choose the View - Filters command from Folder Guard menu to switch to the window that shows the filters of Folder Guard, and then choose the Filters - New command to create a new filter. Fill out the "Properties for New Filter" dialog box as follows:
We want this filter to apply to the executable files only, and the executable files usually have the extensions .exe, .com, that's why we have entered these extensions in the "Apply to files" mask. Also, since we want the filter to apply only to the files on the floppy drive A:, we have entered the mask "A:*" in the "Apply to folders" area. (If you have a CD-ROM drive D:, and you want to prevent running programs from it, too, then you should enter the "Apply to folders" mask as follows: "A:;D:*"). Finally, the text in the "Comments" area is just a note for yourself about what we are doing, you can enter any other text there, or leave it empty, if you want.
Now press OK and enter some meaningful name for the filter you've just created:
Step 2. Restrict access to the files of the filter
This is done in the same way as with regular folders and files: simply use the Protect - Access menu or the toolbar button to assign the "no access" attribute to the filter we've created (note that you cannot restrict the "visiblity" of the files defined by a filter, only access to such files may be restricted):
Step 2. Enable the protection
Again, this step is no different than enabling the protection when hiding the files and folders: in Folder Guard, choose Tools - Enable Protection from the menu. If you have already closed the Folder Guard window, then choose the Start - Programs - Folder Guard - Toggle Protection.
Now try to run a program from the removable drive you have protected - it should not be possible. If you try to open any other file, you should be able to do that without any restrictions.
Did you find this information useful? Wait, there is more:
If you have not done so yet, feel free to download a free no-strings-attached-no-obligation evaluation version of Folder Guard and see for yourself how Folder Guard can be of use to you:
What's included with every license:
| 
