How to Clear the Record of USB Plug in Equipment

Easily remove a USB drive’s trace from your computer with these simple tips

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: December 14, 2024 Tested

Every time you plug a USB drive or peripheral into your Windows PC, an entry is created in the registry to log the event. Although these entries shouldn't cause any problems with future connections, you might want to delete them to alleviate certain privacy concerns. This wikiHow teaches you how to use a free app called USBDeview to erase all evidence of your past USB connections.

Deleting USB History on Windows

Unplug all USB drives and download the USBDeview tool.
Scroll down and click Download USBDeview
Extract the ZIP file and double-click USBDeview.exe.
Click Options and select the USB drive you’d like to remove.
Right-click the entry and click Uninstall Selected Devices.
After uninstalling, press F5 to see if the entry was deleted.

Steps

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If anything is plugged into any of your USB ports right now, save any open files and unplug the accessory safely.
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Go to https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html. This is the website of USBDeview, a free tool that allows you to view and delete all records of USB drives and other peripherals from the Windows registry. This tool is recommended by Microsoft TechNet Community Support and is completely free.
- USBDeview works on all versions of Windows from Windows 2000-Windows 10.^{[1]
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If you're using a 64-bit version of Windows, click the Download USBDeview for x64 systems link instead. Both links are all the way down near the bottom of the page. A ZIP file will now download to your default download location.
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Extract the ZIP file. The file you need to extract is called USBDeview.zip (32-bit systems) or USBDeview-x64.zip (64-bit systems). To do this:
- Open the folder containing the downloaded file (it's usually called Downloads).
- Right-click the file and select Extract All…
- Click Extract. When the files are extracted, a window containing its contents will appear.
This opens the application and displays a list of USB devices that have connected to the PC.
It's at the top of the app.
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Locate a USB entry you'd like to remove. It can be tough to figure out which entry belongs to which device based on the list. To get more information about an entry, double-click it to view its details on one window.
- The "date" field indicates the last date the device was plugged in. This can be helpful for identifying older connections, like a flash drive you used last January.
- Driver information for the device, including the full name of the driver file, appears in the left column.
- Don't uninstall any devices listed as Connected. If you see "Yes" in the "Connected" section for an entry, it's usually something internal, like an input controller, audio interface, or sound module.
A confirmation message will appear.
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Click Yes to confirm. This deletes the registry entry for the selected device.
- Depending on your settings, you may have to click Yes again and/or enter your admin password to save the change.
The Refresh icon (the sheet of paper with two green arrows) is in the toolbar at the top of the app. This refreshes the list so the entry you deleted no longer appears. You can now delete additional entries as needed.

Community Q&A

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Question

Is there a way to delete a single history that will not be shown in usb review?

Community Answer

Yes. If you go to the top of your screen and find the three dots going horizontally, click on them and go to history and delete the things you want to delete.

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Warnings

Some advanced forensics software may still be able to detect USB connections even after the registry entries are deleted.

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