I find it very annoying when I totally forgotten that my USB flash drive is attached to the USB port located at the back of the desktop and only realizing it when I get home, or when I borrowed a software installation disc from my company and forgot to return it back. Using the “forgot” excuse in a working environment can be quite embarrassing and shows how inefficient you are. One solution to prevent that from happening again is to use a software called Free USB Guard that will block the Windows from being shut down which will indirectly inform me that a CD or USB flash drive is still attached to the computer. This method offers me a last chance to remove the disc or USB flash drive from the computer if I needed to.
Free USB Guard is a free and portable tool that is capable of blocking Windows shutdown, logoff and restart process when it detects a flash drive (or another external drive) is attached or a disc is present in the dvd reader. The only user interface that you will see is when it blocks the shutdown process telling you if there is a disc left in the dvd reader or there are still some USB drives connected. If you still want to shut down the computer without removing the USB drive or disc, then you can click on the Shutdown button at the Free USB Guard warning window. There is also a Standby, Hibernate and Restart option but unfortunate there is no logoff button.
By default the Free USB Guard only monitor the presence of USB flash drives but not the CD/DVD disc left in reader or burner. Monitoring of disc can be easily enabled by right clicking on the Free USB Guard icon located at the notification area, go to Monitor the presence of these drives and click on the CD/DVD disc left in reader/burner option. You may also want to set the Free USB Guard to autostart with Windows because it needs to be running in order to block Windows from shutting down when there are disc or USB drive connected to the computer.
Free USB Guard is a donationware, meaning that it is free to use without any limitations but any amount of donation to support the program is much appreciated. It is compatible with Windows XP / Vista / 7 on both 32 & 64 bit and requires .NET Framework 2.0 to run.
Block Windows Shutdown, Restart or Logoff When Disc or USB Drive is Attached is a post from: Raymond.CC Blog