Why did USB1.1 fall into unpopularity?

 The march of progress, maybe?

Are you still watching TV over-the-air much, or maybe via cable, or better still, IPTV (streaming)? Do you still use a home dialup phone, or, most likely, a smartphone… which is a pocket computer, not even a real phone?

USB 1.1 was replaced by USB 2.0. The way that the USB specs were written, however, any device could all-of-a-sudden be called USB 2.0. Technically speaking, a USB 1.1 device — usually a mouse, a keyboard, a graphics tablet, some human interface device that’s not so fast — runs at 1.5Mb/s (low speedc) or 12Mb/s (full speed). By today’s standards, not so far, eh?

But a bunch of these… AT Keyboard, PS/2, Parallel, Modem, Mac serial, Centronics, Serial/COM (DB-25, DB-9), etc. were going at kilobaud speeds. Each one was different, too. What USB did was replace a big pile of different interface connectors with a single connector.

USB 2.0 was introduced to continue that trend. It added a new 480Mb/s (“high speed”) mode, but kept the other two slower modes. This new spec now covered the functions of Optical TOSLink, some uses of Firewire, ADB, audio (digital), AAUI/Ethernet, SCSI, etc.

Now, of course, mundanes buying computer systems don’t know all this. They know USB 2.0 is the New Hotness, so they don’t buy USB 1.1. The will wind up buying totally USB 1.1 compliant hardware, but overnight, it’s all called USB 2.0 now.

USB3 is a similar thing… it added 5Gb/s and later 10Gb/s connections. But it included USB 2.0… in fact, every USB3 connector mandates normal everyday USB 2.0 on two connector pins. If you look at the chart, USB3 was a full enough replacement for eSATA and made a better SCSI and networking replacement, but most of the promise was “things that are yet to be.” And as with USB 2.0, any USB thing can be called USB3, even if it’s not really able to support higher speed modes.

In time, USB3 introduced a technology that lets other things run over the same connector, so at some point, some USB3 ports allowed digital video options that replace DVI, VGA/SVGA, HDMI, etc. In fact, the reason it doesn’t replace DisplayPort is that USB3 can offer DisplayPort over a USB Type-C cable.

And now USB4 incorporated most of what Intel created with Thunderbolt 3/4, faster sill and still doing DisplayPort for video. The difference is that Thunderbolt is certified under both USB and Thunderbolt rules, which mandate each port does practically everything, and USB4, which lets a mouse be USB4 if the marketing folks want to dub it that.

Protect your PC from data theft by USB or CD, with “URC Access Modes”

If you are a business, public venue, or even a normal user concerned with the illegitimate copying or transfer of files or data from your computer(s) via USB or CD, then this program is for you.

‘URC Access Modes’ is a FREE program that will allow you to shut off and password protect USB and CD access on any machine that you have administrator access to.

If you would like your PC to be able to read from USB drives but not write onto them, “URC Access Modes” can do that by setting USB access to read only. It can also switch off RegEdit, preventing any user from going into and editing the registry illegitimately.

How to use:

Usage is simplicity itself. Install the the program and run it as administrator. The options in the main screen (pictured above) are all self explanatory. One thing to keep in mind: remember your password. If you forget it, the only way to recover it may be for you to contact the developer of the program and plead your case.

The verdict:

The program works really well and does exactly what is promised. We booted into safe mode and found that the settings still hold, and the interface is very straightforward.

But the program can be improved. I sent this to someone in a business who really does need to protect access to their computers, and got this feedback: “I think it is a Windows feature for which they made a friendly interface. What would be nice if they had a master password and then separate passwords for the other functions that are either time limited and/or can be changed so you can give someone the flash read-only password for short term access and after that you won’t have to change it again and remember a new password.”

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will keep on developing it and taking it further. As it is though, a very nice program if you need it.

Did you test this program? Do you know of other programs that provide this function? Let us know in the comments section.

This program is more powerful than I originally thought. In an interchange with the developer of this program. He pointed out that most other USB-restricting programs (like this one) can be worked around simply by manually re-enabling USB write access via a registry tweak (or using some 3rd party software). It would require that a user be sophisticated enough to do so, but it is possible. Not so with ‘URC Access Modes’, which will not accept any such workaround, and which can only be reversed by using your password (or re installing Windows).
URC Access Modes is now in version 2

It now includes a larger set of tools: USB Tool  &  CD/DVD Tool, Registry(regedit.exe) Tool, Command Prompt(cmd.exe) Tool, Group Policy Tool(gpedit.msc)  and Task Manager Tool(taskmgr.exe).

•  USB & CD Tools: can disable USB Mass Storage Devices such as Pen Drives , Hard Disk etc, without disabling peripheral devices such as your USB Mouse, Keyboard, Webcam etc. Protects from data theft and virusus.
• Registry & Command Prompt Tools: protect from unauthorized code execution via disabling the command prompt and registry. Also the URC ACCESS MODES password is stored in the registry hence disabling it will protect the program from being circumvented.
• Group Policy & Task Manager Tools: many important system settings are protected since many of these are in the Group Policy. Also important processes cannot be shut down from the task manger.