If you often allow others to access your computer as the remote computer and you want to allow direct access to removable storage in remote sessions, this might help you enable that. It is straightforward to enable or disable Remote Desktop Access or RDP to removable storage devices in Windows PC. You can do that with the help of Registry Editor or Local Group Policy Editor.

Many folks often use remote session functionality to help a friend or family member from being miles away. At times, you might need access to the removable storage such as a USB drive, external hard drive, etc. on a remote computer. Similarly, if someone is using your computer as a remote PC, you might want to allow that person to access the connected USB device. By default, Windows doesn’t allow remote users to access any removable storage device. However, if you want to enable this access, this tutorial will help you.

Note: You need to enable this functionality on the remote computer.

Allow direct access to Removable Storage in Remote Sessions

To allow direct access to removable storage in remote sessions using Registry Editor, follow these steps-

Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
Type regedit and hit the Enter button.
Click Yes in the UAC prompt.
Navigate to the Windows key in HKCU.
Create a new key.
Name it as RemovableStorageDevices.
Create a new DWORD value.
Name it as AllowRemoteDASD.
Double-click on AllowRemoteDASD and set the value to 1.
Restart your computer.

To know more about these steps, you should keep reading.

Before getting started, you should create a Registry file backup and create a System Restore point.

At first, you need to open Registry Editor on your computer. For that, you can take the help of the Taskbar search box. However, if you are using an older version of Windows, you can press Win+R, type regedit, and hit the Enter button. After clicking the Yes button in the UAC prompt, it should open the Registry Editor on your PC instantly. After that, navigate to this following path-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

You should see a key called RemovableStorageDevices in the Windows key.

However, if you don’t see it, you need to create it manually. For that, right-click on the Windows key and select New > Key.

Name it as RemovableStorageDevices. Then, select this newly created key, right-click on it, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

It should create a DWORD value on your right-hand side. Name it as AllowRemoteDASD.

Now, double-click on AllowRemoteDASD and set the value as 1.

After setting the value, you should restart your computer.

In case you want to disable the removable storage access for the remote users, you have two methods.

You set the value of AllowRemoteDASD as 0, or you can delete the RemovableStorageDevices key from Registry Editor after navigating to this path-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

That’s it! Again, you should restart your computer to make the change complete.

Allow direct access to removable storage in remote sessions using Group Policy Editor

To allow direct access to removable storage in remote sessions using Local Group Policy Editor, follow these steps-

Press Win+R to open the Run prompt.
Type gpedit.msc and hit the Enter button.
Navigate to the Removable Storage Access in Computer Configuration.
Double-click on All Removable Storage: Allow direct access in remote sessions.
Select Enabled.
Click the OK button to save the change.
Restart your computer.

Let’s check out these steps in detail.

At first, you need to open Local Group Policy Editor on your computer. For that, press Win+R to open the Run prompt, type gpedit.msc, and hit the Enter button. Then, navigate to this path-

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Removable Storage Access

Here you can find a setting called All Removable Storage: Allow direct access in remote sessions. You need to double-click on it and select the Enabled option.

After that, click the OK button to save the change.

Restart your computer.

That’s it!