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hi i am yogesh sharma. i want to develop an windows application which restrict users to copy media files from usb (be it mp3,mp4, etc.) based on password protection. user can only play media files and can't copy or delete. plese suggest me some solution with example if possible...
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Updated 1-Dec-15 6:14am
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Philippe Mori 1-Dec-15 12:11pm    
Useless idea. Someone would simply have to put the USB key in another computer...
Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 1-Dec-15 12:47pm    
Not only it's useless idea in the sense Philippe Mori explained above, it does not even make sense. Protection from deletion makes sense, but how about protection from copying? It means the data cannot be used at all. "Play" is always a "copy", how else?
—SA

You cannot do what you want. Reading the file for playback is no different from reading it to copy the file. You cannot tell the difference.
 
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I agree about what others have shared but just for curosity I tried searching for such softwares which can protect files stored in a USB drive and and found following link
http://www.kakasoft.com/usb-copy-protect/how-to.html[^]
It seems to be having such features.
I personally would recomend you to download the trial and check if it really works. Then if it works just grab the idea with which it is doing things and start your development.

I don't think it will be completely copy protected but atleast to some extenct it may help.

I am not sure how many people will agree that you should proceed further on your idea as it doesn't seem to be completely feasible but I would say check it yourself if it meets your actual requirement.

thanks :)
 
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As always, CodeProject is your friend; here's one example of using C# to protect a folder: [^]. I am sure you can find other C# examples if you search.

If you are looking for the equivalent of a complex file system on a USB drive with various Roles/Permissions/Groups, etc., then, as Philppe and Sergey commented, what you describe cannot be done, effectively. I suggest you focus on preventing folders/files you wish to protect from every being written to a USB drive; that may often not be possible without hardware modifications.

You can create protected files/folder on a USB drive; there's a variety of commercial software, like TrueCrypt (havne't used it mysefl), available: [^], but, given an effort by a talented "hacker," that folder may be as insecure as most computer file systems are these days.

And, some USB manufacturers, like Kingston (for one), make a USB drives with extra security features: [^].
 
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