How do I *really* disable auto-play in Windows XP?

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ps.

In addition to my comment posted above; The funny thing is: when the Group Policy option is set, it becomes practically impossible to access the Registry key any more! :-F

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom

Not sure if I am the only one with this added problem, but when I tried to change the group policy as described above, I couldn't find the System option. To solve this, right click on administrative templates, select add/remove templates, and select system.adm. The option to disable autoplay is now available.

Great advice!!! Thank you so much. I have to agree with Haz, I think that the Group Policy method does not work with Home Edition as gpedit.msc does not even exist on my OS drive. However, TweakUI is a great tool for any XP machine if you know how to use it, or only use it for things like this that give you clear direction.

Open Notepad and copy/paste the following into a text file:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
@="@SYS:DoesNotExist"

Save the file as something.reg. (You have to be sure to change the "Save File as Type" to "All Files" before saving, or Windows will try to save it as a .txt even if you typed in .reg.

Locate the file you just saved and double-click the file to run it. You will receive a prompt asking if you want to add the data to the registry. Click yes to allow the modification.

The above method nulls any request for autorun.inf and works on XP Home or Pro, as well as Windows Vista.

This is how you can easily disable AutoPlay

Open Notepad and copy/paste the following into a text file:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:000000B1

Save the file as something.reg. (You have to be sure to change the "Save File as Type" to "All Files" before saving, or Windows will try to save it as a .txt even if you typed in .reg.

Locate the file you just saved and double-click the file to run it. You will receive a prompt asking if you want to add the data to the registry. Click yes to allow the modification.

and to re-enable it, use this:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091

For those who have XP Home (no gpedit.msc) and don't want to hassle with the registry, I found a nice tool that turns off autoplay in the easiest way that I have ever seen (it's also reversible). Just Google for "Auto Play Squelch" and you will find it.

SP3 makes it even harder to use the regedit app. And pretty much makes it necessary to use third party utilities or TweakUI. Why does MS continue to make it difficult for users to secure the OS?

Oh and by the way, M3TAL_L0RD's posting does not work with Windows XP Pro SP3 even under admin credentials and after a reboot. Nice try though.

M3TAL_L0RD's posting will work swapping HKEY_CURENT_USER with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEthe and the addition of the following registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer]"HonorAutoRunSetting"=dword:00000000

Sorry, that should be HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE with no "the" at the end of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

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