The fundamental Windows flaw that enables USB drives to propagate viruses is the autorun feature, that is the thing that this kind of virus exploit as it runs a program automatically without user permission. The very first measure you should always do it to completely disable it. This would at least prevent viruses to run so they remain harmless on the drive, when you have a chance to spot them or at least run an AV for detection.

Viruses might sneak in pendrives for other than autorun viruses, of course, but those are much less of a menace if you scan prior, as they don't get run only by plugin the drive.



junjun said:
Just wondering, is having an anti virus software sufficient to protect your PC from removable drive threat
The very first protection any computer has is the user. Common sense is the first line of defense against any threats you might face, but if user is not knowledgeable about them there is little you can do. Basically, if the user clicks "yes to all" without thinking, problems WILL appear sooner or latter, as many nasties rely on the user to voluntary run them. Antiviruses are inherently not reliable to stop or even detect everything, they serve as a good safety net, but should not be the only protection.