Comments on: Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Boot Your Windows PC

By: Encryption Software

Encryption Software — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:07:26 +0000

Since all computers share basically the same necessary startup programs, what is stopping a hacker from having several discs with different combinations of the basic types of programs on them and trying each of them on your computer until one of them is enough to boot it?

By: Make Use Of « Blog-Feast.com Blog Collection

Make Use Of « Blog-Feast.com Blog Collection — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:29:50 +0000

[...] Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Boot Your Windows PC (50) [...]

By: How To Prevent A USB Drive From Running Anything Automatically In Windows | Buyrite.info

Sat, 30 May 2009 06:54:26 +0000

[...] Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Boot Your Windows PC (49) [...]

By: Pierre Madden

Pierre Madden — Sat, 09 May 2009 16:57:18 +0000

Booting from a USB or encription are both rather complicated. My simple solution is to keep all my files on my USB and carry them with me in my pocket. My computer could be hacked, stolen or destroyed and it would not make a difference for the integrity of my data, including all website passwords. A “stupid” machine is a secure machine.

By: Fredrik

Fredrik — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:29:40 +0000

Farooq: Boot.ini is not used in vista, the whole boot manager has been changed. So it is not entirely easy to do these modifications if you don’t know your way around computers.

You should search for a specific vista guide, or hope that Varun makes a vista version.

By: Farooq

Farooq — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:37:07 +0000

How to do all this in VISTA. I cannot find “boot.ini, NTLDR and ntdetect.com” in VISTA. Can u plz help me how to do this process on vista???

By: Convierte tu USB/Pen drive en una Llave para encender tu PC « Apuntes de Informática

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:02:21 +0000

[...] tu windows xp tal y como si fuera una llave para abrir una puerta, leí esta información en MakeUseOf y la considere tan interesante que decidi [...]

By: Erik

Erik — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:46:52 +0000

My computer uses F8 to boot into the bios. Don’t assume things if you don’t know!!

By: sayOZ

sayOZ — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:38:26 +0000

i think is funny not a safe secure mode

By: Teddy

Teddy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:07:37 +0000

Why not just use TrueCrypt to keep everything you want private away from prying eyes? At least you wouldn’t be under a false sense of security, which is what this hack creates…

By: Abdh

Abdh — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:34:01 +0000

Amateurish and utterly useless solution, indeed…….

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:15:54 +0000

It’s worth noting that the caveat at the bottom is VERY true! Not only can they boot from a Linux LiveCD but people can also boot Windows up without the files on your USB drive:

Using the Windows recovery console you can: (i) recreate boot.ini file (bootcfg /Rebuild) and (ii) aquire the ntldr files.

This is still a very creative way to start your machine up though!

By: kenny

kenny — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:37:00 +0000

This post is not recommendable for beginners,as they try themselves out of ordinary and gets into trouble…

By: pessimist

pessimist — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:36:57 +0000

The feeling of insecurity even after securing with the highest achievable encryption is the worst security threat ever.

“For every Encryption, there is an equal and opposite Decryption”

By: Nolan

Nolan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:24:26 +0000

Throw Back Track 3 USB build onto a thumb drive pop it in boot from that. From there you can root pretty much any box. Funny thing is the only way to counter act that (to my knowledge) is to disable the USB ports via device manager or registry, heh kind of renders this method useless for defending against any real hacker.

By: Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Start Your PC

Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Start Your PC — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:33:59 +0000

[...] is by no means foolproof (which security measure is? ) so you might not want to bet your life on it.read more | digg [...]

By: DIY computer security dongle « Wondering & Pondering’s Weblog

DIY computer security dongle « Wondering & Pondering’s Weblog — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:10:59 +0000

[...] So go on, turn your USB thumb drive into a security dongle for you computer! [...]

By: Fredrik

Fredrik — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:39:21 +0000

I thought about this again. And come to the conclution
that this whole idéa is stupid. It is no more secure than a password. I a person can get around the password they can get around this.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:35:23 +0000

Hmm can’t edit my comment, stupid website.

I forgot to add C:\bootmgr is also a required file to boot.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:33:39 +0000

On my Vista machine there are the XP files listed here (boot.ini is there for compatibility, it doesn’t have to be moved) and in addition there is a C:\Boot directory as well you should move, as it also contains boot data (it is the replacement for boot.ini… it contains a REGISTRY HIVE (which is just ridiculous) as well as the memory tester and localization files.

In addition you may need to actually copy the bootsector… I’m not sure.

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:21:06 +0000

@Fredrik: Yeah I’ve read that blog post somewhere as well.. You forget about the bit whereby you have to chill the memory to absolute zero or something first.. I reckon it would probably be easier to kidnap you and stick a gun to your head…

The fact is you can crack any encryption with the correct tools, I think it’s all about making it as difficult as possible, and Truecrypt does that better than anything else.

By: Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Start Your PC « Internet Making Money

Use Your USB Stick As a Key to Start Your PC « Internet Making Money — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:46:25 +0000

[...] Link:http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/prevent-pc-from-booting-if-your-usb-drive-is-not-inserted/ [...]

By: Fredrik

Fredrik — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Paul: Truecrypt is not that secure, it has flaws. One big one is that if the computer is on, encrupte volyme open and in “ctrl + alt +delite” mode (a farly common senario) you can “easy” get the key by taking the momory out and puting them into anoter computer and dumt the cntens to the hardrive and then read the key.

You need a encryption tool that encrypts the key when leaving the computer unatended.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:08:18 +0000

It makes so much more sense to encrypt your hard drive with TrueCrypt and set it up with a password and keyfile on the flash drive.

By: Alfonso

Alfonso — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:43:20 +0000

Amateurish and utterly useless solution, indeed…..

By: Userdenied

Userdenied — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:33:11 +0000

I believe the point of this guide was to stop your non tech savvy folk from getting on your computer. Though as said several times above a password would do the exact same thing…maybe it’s a ‘feel good’ guide that is put out there so not terribly tech knowledgeable people can do something that seems important?

By: Devin

Devin — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:15:14 +0000

My computer uses F8 to boot into the bios. Don’t assume things if you don’t know!

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Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:54:49 +0000

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By: Carl

Carl — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 17:43:36 +0000

This might stop your grandmother booting your PC, but your tech-savvy 14 year old? I don’t think so…. your article even describes how to reverse these changes! Using the BIOS to setup a boot password would be far more effective and less likely to cause trouble when you lose your USB key. Jeez, freakin’ amateurs…

By: mark

mark — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 15:46:27 +0000

wow!

very helPuL….