Can bootable flash drive be only key for booting into XP?

Can we make a bootable flash drive for Windows XP Professional such that it can be the only key to boot into XP, and nothing else will allow us to boot into it?

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There are third-party companies that make something like this. One such product is C'lock , which prevents Windows from being booted without a hardware key.

Windows Vista has a feature called BitLocker that allows for something almost exactly like what you're describing. A cryptographic key, without which the system will not boot, can be placed on a USB drive and used to boot the computer. Without it, the computer is neither bootable nor readable by any third party, as it's wholly encrypted.

If you're considering a move to Vista, this is a handy (since it's built in) way to do exactly what you're describing.

This was first published in December 2006

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