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USB Passthrough on HP Thin Client

I need to allow users to access their USB flash drives connected to their HP Thin Clients to passthrough to the terminal server.  We have HP t5740 terminals.  I have configured Local Resources on the RDP connection.  I have enabled the HP RDP USB Redirector service and it recognized the USB flash drive.

If I am logged in to the terminal as Administrator, everything works perfectly.  But if I am logged in as a user, the drive does not pass through to the Terminal Server session.  I believe it is a security policy on the terminal that does not allow the User account to access any local drives.  The User account does not have access to My Computer, Run command, or Task Manager.  If I open Internet Explorer and type the drive letter in the address bar, I get the following error:

Title: Address Bar
Message: Accessing the resource 'd:' has been disallowed.

(this works when logged in as Administrator)


1. Is there an easy way to allow USB passthrough on these HP Thin Clients.  The only reason we bought these more expensive terminals is for the USB ports.

2. Where are the local security policies being set?  I don't want to make the User account an admin, but if I could grant it access to the drives, that would be fine.  I have looked through the Local Security Policy snap-in, Symantec Endpoint Protection, and the Registry (but I don't know where to look).

HP support has not been able to help.  This shouldn't be this hard!  

Thanks in advance!
Jamison VanCleve
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jeremyjared74
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It is a registry setting. You can change it yourself, or use a registry entry tool listed here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/registry-hack-to-disable-writing-to-usb-drives/
I know the auto reg entry file that the above link refers to, but I don't have the directory in my computer, but this site has the correct directory listing if you are attempting to edit the registry yourself: http://www.dexternights.com/2009/04/01/how-to-enable-usb-drives-usb-ports-and-usb-mass-storage-devices/
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jamie177

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Thank you for the suggestions jeremyjared74.  Unfortunately these did not work for me.  At this point, I don't think it is an issue with the terminal recognizing the USB drive.  I believe the terminal is locked down so tightly that the User account cannot access any local drives.
Try this:

Log in to thin client (WES 2009 in my case) as administrator
unlock the HP Write Filter (EWF) via Control Panel if it is locked
Launch regedit
select the HKEY_Users key
File -> Load Hive
Browse to the ntuser.dat file at c:\documents and settings\User and open it (name it USER or something)
Expand HKEY_Users\USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Change the NoDrives DWord to a decimal value of 33554439 if you want to block A: B: C: Z: (ramdrive) but allow access to other drive letters (in this case d: probably). (http://www.wisdombay.com/hidedrive/index.php is great for calculating this value for other drive letters)
Change the NoRun DWord to 0
Select the \HKEY_Users\USER key
File - > Unload Hive , yes
Close regedit
Re-lock the EWF (recommended)
Reboot!

USER should now be able to access the USB drive. You can muck with other registry keys to disable autorun, etc. as needed. This worked on the HP t5740W I tried it on.

Good luck!
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jamie177

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