How can I disable autorun but leave autoplay active?

[davexnet]

Hi all,
researching this scenario in Windows XP.

For CD's/DVD's that have autorun.inf pointing to an executable, and starting when the
disk is inserted, I'd like to disable this functionality.

But for CD's/DVD's with content (eg. music CD) I'd like the list of options to appear
asking me what program I'd like to use to open the disk. (autoplay).

Is it possible to have one with out the other?

Thanks for any info.

 

[Golgatha]

I don't think it's possible. Win7 has Autoplay in the control panel and you can pick and choose what you do and don't want to do with regards to Autoplay. Alternatively you can hold down the Shift key manually, when you insert the disk, to prevent Autoplay on WinXP whenever you don't want something to Autoplay.

 

[Golgatha]

Good stuff here too.

http://windows.about.com/od/timesavingshortcuts/qt/autoplay_xp.htm

 

[davexnet]

Thanks Golgatha - I've gradually come to the same conclusion. Found a paragraph
on the Wikipedia articles for autorun/autoplay which says for device type CDROM,
the autorun.inf is always executed first if it's present.
Only if it's absent do other autoplay options kick in.

Seems odd that MS didn't offer at least a registry mod to offer something like my
suggestion. It either works the way it does, or you can turn the whole thing off.
It's pathetic really.

I don't understand why MS ever thought it was a good idea that the executable on
a CD would start without any user notification. Remember the Sony audio CD
rootkit?

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000130.htm

 

[davexnet]

Thanks JackMDS,
unfortunately (correct me if I'm wrong) the articles do not cover the particular
scenario I'm trying to achieve. I want to completely ignore autorun.inf on the CD,
but still have autoplay active to prompt me for what program to activate -
as per the autoplay handlers which can be seen in "My Computer/right click CD/properties/autoplay"

For example, for a Music CD,
"rip music from CD with WMP", "Play audio CD with WMP",
"Create an image using IMGburn", etc,etc. Below that I have "Prompt me each time to
choose an action" , which I selected.

When a music CD is inserted a list comes up with the above options and I can select
the action to take. I want this functionality to operate.

But if another CD (for example the XP retail install disk) is inserted that contains an
an autorun.inf pointing to some program to run (setup.exe usually) I do NOT want
that to run.

A Wikipedia article discussing autorun/autoplay says that for XP, the autorun.inf
always runs if it's on a CD (unless autoplay is completely disabled) This may have been
acceptable in Windows 95/98 but should have been rethought for XP.

Apparently, they didn't do the logical thing until Vista, when they put the autorun.inf "action"
(if there is one) in the menu with the other autoplay items relevant to the media type.

EDIT - the registry mod mentioned on this webpage disables the automatic initiation of the autorinf.inf for all media.
Seems as if the government had similar concerns to mine - they didn't like the way it worked. This is a great hack,
gives me the result I'm looking for, Autoplay still works.
http://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/ta09-020a