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Summary of Autoplay capabilities and options
Wednesday, February 8, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Windows XP Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by JB
(2 messages posted)
I think you are right, Anchor Man. After a lot of research and experimentation,
I think the whole Windows Autoplay (aka Autorun) implementation is flawed at best
and there is no option that is secure yet does what it's was designed to do. Here's
what I think is a definitive summary of what the different Autoplay techniques do:
- Autorun= 0/1 registry setting: This prevents Windows from knowing that
the CD/DVD has been changed by the user. (e.g. suppresses the Media Change Notification
(MCN) internal message). This is not recommended because it will confuse apps like
Explorer and WMP.
- AutoRunAlwaysDisable=0x0–0xFF registry setting: This does essentially
the same thing as the "Autorun" setting above, but you can specifiy individual drives.
This is also not recommended.
- NoDriveTypeAutoRun=0x0–0xFF registry setting: This continues the Media
Change Notification (MCN) internal Windows message being sent to applications like
Explorer and WMP (if they are open), but the Autoplay actions you choose through
the "My Computer" -> "Autoplay" tab won't work. This is also what TweakUI
and the Group Policy (gpedit.msc) techniques set.
In a perfect world, we'd use the "My Computer" -> "Autoplay" tab to set all the Autoplay
options we want, including preventing EXEs from running automatically from a CD.
But, that's apparently not possible right now with the OS.
My recommendation is to keep your computer as secure as possible and prevent EXEs
from being automatically installed from the CD without your knowledge and consent.
So, turn off Autoplay using techinque #3 above and just manually start the application
you want, and manually run the setup programs from data CDs.
On Tuesday, February 7, 2006 at 9:42 pm, AnchorMan wrote:
>You can't that I know of. Autoplay looks for autorun.inf which usually points to
>an executable or bat file on the CD. Audio CDs are recognized as audio by the burn
>format. Newer audio cd's are including video and the such, so you either love them
>or hate them. What you are trying to do is actually an oxymoron. By changing one
>the other is always affected.
>
>
>
>Anchor Man
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 |  |  | Summary of Autoplay capabilities and options (JB: Wed, Feb 8, 2006, 2:33 pm) |
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