Disable Autorun

Name: Autorun... my computer is lucky to be crawling!
Category: Removing useless "features"
Operating System: These instructions are for XP other Operating Systems instructions click here
Difficulty: Moderate computer knowledge and nerves of steel

What is autorun...?
Autorun was another fantastic idea from Microsoft. This was the actual conversation about it at Microsoft headquarters*
MS employee 1: Lets make peoples lives easier by making Cd's run automatically when they insert the disk. MS employee 2: Great Idea

Well even though it was a great idea there are two fatal problems with this "feature"
a) spyware and viruses on a CD just might use this "feature" to autorun without your knowledge or permission
b) it's really really annoying

*this may be completely made up

How do I stop/get rid of it...?
There are 3 different ways of doing this:

1. Hold the shift key when you put a CD in your drive

2. This will remove autorun in most cases (and it also allows you to choose)

• Open My Computer.
• Right-click the desired CD-ROM and select Properties from the menu.
• Select the AutoPlay tab.
• Select each item from the pulldown list and for the Action to perform, select "Take no action" to disable autorun, or pick the appropriate action to take if enabling autorun.
• Select OK.

3. To be rid of it completely you need to edit the registry. This should not be done if you don't have some decent computer knowledge, but if you follow these steps carefully it does work.

a) In Windows Click Start, then Click Run

b) Type regedit -- Click OK

c) Click (one after the other) > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services > Cdrom>

d) Double click "Autorun" the value is set to 1 by default, change it to zero.

e) Click OK ---> Now restart, that's it!

Is that it...?
Yes autorun should now be disabled and you should be safe again from another great "feature."

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