Cannot Re-enable Writes to USB and Optical

Question

Created a policy on a small domain to restrict writing to external media.  Used a GPO (with security filtering set to a specific User Group) to enable the settings found in User Config/Policies/Admin Templates/System/Removable Storage Access - specifically:
CD and DVD: Deny write access: Enabled
Floppy Drives: Deny write access: Enabled
Removable Disks: Deny write access: Enabled
Tape Drives: Deny write access: Enabled
WPD Devices: Deny Write access: Enabled
and also:
Windows Components/Windows Explorer
Remove CD Burning features: Enabled
Now I need to remove these restrictions for ONE user.  Not having much luck.  To troubleshoot, I've tried removing for ALL users, STILL won't work.  More specifically, I've tried:
1. Creating a new policy that has the opposite settings and applying to a new group (I removed the user from the old group and added them to this one.  Rebooted.  This did not work.
2. Reset the policy settings to DISABLE those restrictions. Rebooted. That has not worked.
3. Removed both policies and deleted the contents of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\RemovableStorageDevices (after backing up, of course).  Rebooted.  That did not work.
4. Tried creating a local user account with the policies disabled but that reports access denied as well when attempting to copy files to a USB flash drive.
These should be USER settings.  Why are they NOT removing themselves and more importantly, how do I get them removed?

Answer 1

Hi,
>>These should be USER settings.  Why are they NOT removing themselves and more importantly, how do I get them removed?
Based on the description, what's the operating system we are using? If our operating system is Windows Server 2008, in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2, we can install the following hotfix to see if it helps.
Users cannot access removable devices after you enable and then disable a Group Policy setting in Windows Server 2008, in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2
https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2738898
Best regards,
Frank Shen
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