So many USB storage device drivers installed...

Today we had a class presentation and my laptop was used to connect to the projector. So everyone in my class plugged their USB drives in my laptop. Every time a new USB drive was inserted, my laptop said hardware found and Windows would install a driver for that. Is this going to cause a problem? How do I uninstall these extra drivers? My laptop won't be using those USB drives ever again - other than my own one of course.

 

From my understanding it's not really installing drivers, just making sure it works... I format my flash drives often so there's zero things on them and Vista will say that... I wouldn't worry about uninstalling anything.

P.S. You're more brave than me to let them use your laptop. The thought frightens me!

 

I didn't really want to! The computer in the seminar room wasn't working and I was the only one who brought a laptop... Another classmate brought a Mac...

Thanks though, but you sure nothing was installed? Because to my understanding next time you insert the very same USB drive, Vista will automatically recognize it.

 

I'm quite sure it's nothing that will slow down your laptop. It's not something your laptop will utilize when the device isn't plugged in.

On a side note, I agree with Isend2C. Our school org once had a meeting and I was the one assigned to bring the laptop to hook up to the projector. MAN, EVERY SINGLE USB INSERTED WAS INFECTED BY SOME SORT OF VIRUS/TROJAN/WORM!! Good thing: 1) I don't have AutoPlay on and 2) Avira rocks. And to be on the safe side, I created a restore point before all the shenanigans and used system restore when I got home.

 

That is not really completely "safe". That insured that all the system and program files got reset back, but didn't restore any other files that might have been infected. In such situations, I always clone my drive and restore the image after I am out of harms way. That insures that EVERY thing was reset.

Gary

 

Ok, now I am paranoid!! I didn't do any safety measures. What should I do now? I hate installing other people's things on my computer.

 

Welcome to section #12883 how Windows is stupid, it even thinks the same device plugged into a different USB port is a different device. It's very, very annoying for those of us with multiple devices and multiple machines, having it "detect a new device" every time instead of just making the dang drive letter and shutting up.

The only safety measure you can do now is do a full virus scan.

 

precisely. my response would have been 'GET YOUR OWN, FOCKERS!!!!!'

and im not kidding.

 

but nothing is really installed, why? I don't want useless things to take up disk space.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. No need to lose sleep over this. It's just recognizing a usb device and making sure it works. Sounds like you have OCD..

 

I believe the driver is just attempting to communicate with the external device in order for it to work. Yes the problem with multiple access is a virus, trojan and/or worm. If you have a good virus program it shouldn't be a problem and hopefully will catch it before it installs itself. Most people don't usually intend to infect a system when a presentation is being done for class or work. Sandisk has U3 programs which can run independently from the main system and sometimes will show itself as another CD drive on the system.

 

I found a utility that can uniinstall them!
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
The USB device view can uninstall the previously connected USB devices. What do you guys think?