How to Clear the Record of USB Plug-In Devices on a PC

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Remove all traces of USB drives and equipment from your computer

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: November 15, 2025 Fact Checked

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Using USBDeview

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Using USBOblivion

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Video

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Q&A

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Warnings

Every time you plug a USB drive or device 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, or to troubleshoot problems with USB drivers.. This wikiHow guide teaches you how to use 2 free apps–USBDeview and USBObvlivion–to erase all evidence of your past USB device connections.

Delete USB History with USBDeview: Quick Steps

Unplug all connected USB devices.
Download the USBDeview tool.
Extract the ZIP file and double-click USBDeview.exe.
Right-click a USB device and select Uninstall Selected Devices.
Repeat for all devices you want to delete from the history.
Press F5 to refresh the list.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using USBDeview

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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 the USBDeview download page. This is the website of USBDeview, a free tool by Nirsoft that allows you to view and delete all records of USB drives and other peripherals from the Windows registry. This tool is completely free.^{[1]
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- USBDeview works on all versions of Windows, including Windows 10 and Windows 11.
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If you're using Windows 11 or a 64-bit version of Windows 10, click the Download USBDeview for x64 systems link. If you are using a 32-bit version of Windows 10 or an earlier 32-bit version of Windows, click the Download USBDeview link. Both links are all the way down near the bottom of the page. A ZIP file will 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 from the ZIP, a window containing the extracted files will appear.
This opens the application and displays a list of USB devices that have connected to the PC.
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Double-click a USB device to learn more about it. 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 in a new 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.^{[2]
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Using USBOblivion

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1
Disconnect all USB drives and peripherals from the PC. If anything is plugged into any of your USB ports right now, save any open files and unplug the accessory safely.
- If you have an HP printer that uses HP Smart software, this method could break your printer driver. Use a different method, or uninstall your printer and all drivers before using this one.^{[3]
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Go to USBOblivion's page on SourceForge and click Download. This downloads the ZIP file to your PC.
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Extract the ZIP file. The file you need to extract is called usboblivion-1.17.0.0.zip (the version number will vary). To do this:
- Open the Downloads folder.
- Right-click the file and select Extract All…
- Click Extract.
- When the files are extracted from the ZIP, a window containing the extracted files will appear.
If you're using Windows 11 or a 64-bit version of Windows 10, double-click USBOblivion64.exe. If you're using a 32-bit version of Windows 10 or an older 32-bit Windows version, double-click USBOblivion32.exe.
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Do a simulation first. This tool won't show you a list of past-connected USB devices unless you do a test run first. Uncheck all the boxes at the bottom, then click Simulate (and click Yes to confirm) to display a list of registry keys associated with previously-connected USB devices.
- The tool will make it seem like it deleted the keys, but this was just a simulation.
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Clear the record of USB devices. Now that you've seen which keys will be deleted, you can proceed with a real cleaning. Here's how:^{[4]
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- Check all the boxes at the bottom–"Do real clean (simulation otherwise)," "Save backup .reg file", "Close Windows Explorer (RECOMMENDED)", and "Reboot Windows (RECOMMENDED)."
- Click the Clean button.
- Windows Explorer will shut down, which means the taskbar and other features will disappear.
- Once the cleaning is complete, you'll be prompted to restart your computer.
- You must restart after running this tool. If you don't, you'll run into a problem.
- When Windows comes back up, the USB device history will be deleted.
- If you run into any problems, reboot your PC once more. If that doesn't help, run the tool again, then reboot your PC.

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 previously-connected USB devices even after the registry entries are deleted.

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