Shiela USB Shield protects PCs against USB threats

Shiela USB Shield is a free security program for Windows operating systems that protects PCs from USB threats.

USB Devices are often used to spread malicious software. This can be software that replicates itself on USB devices or specifically prepared code to attack select systems only.

The free Windows software Shiela USB Shield offers real-time protection against threats coming from removable devices using USB connections.

Among the many features are protective measures to lock autorun.inf files on connected devices and the executable files they link to, drive vaccination and options to write protect or even disable USB Mass Storage on the system.

The program needs to be installed before it becomes available. Please note that it requires elevated rights as it will quit with an error message otherwise and that it requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or later.

Shiela USB Shield runs silently in the background for the most part. You may want to check the settings at least once though to make sure the application is configured properly.

The settings are quite extensive and divided on four tabs. The following may be particularly useful:

• Add a virus scanner location or command which Shiela will use when it detects suspicious files.
• Decide whether to automatically fix issues (default), or display warnings instead. The default action is set to freeze infected files, unhide files and folders on the device, add immunity to the infected drive, and return affected files and folders to their original paths.
• Disable USB Mass Storage or set write protection.
• Add file exceptions that are excluded from analysis.

The program's right-click context menu displays manual actions that you can run. You may run manual scans of select drives for instance, unhide files or folders on the drive so that they become visible, or select to vaccinate drives connected to the system.

It is theoretically possible to run manual operations on fixed drives as well but it is not recommended to do so as it has not been designed for that.

Shiela is compatible with all versions of Windows starting with Windows 2000. It is ideal to recover a system from attacks and to protect systems from attacks in first place.

Good antivirus software may provide similar means of protection though so that you may not need to run the program at all to protect a PC.

Closing Words

Shiela USB Shield is a straightforward easy to use program that adds another security layer to systems it is run on. The program consumes little memory while it is running and should not get in your way most of the time.

In fact, if you keep the automatic handling of infections and suspicious files then you may not notice it at all even if it becomes active in the background.