Is autorun really that evil, and if so, how do I turn autorun off?

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My friend, I'm thinking you're going to need a much more detailed, step-by-step set of instructions to make this reg edit work smoothly. FAR too many folks are just not as computer literate as we might think and there are at least two or three vague areas on your instructions that will have SOME screwing up their registry beyond belief. Just sayin'.....

I'm hopeful that "download and run this .reg file" will be simple enough.

- Leo
14-Feb-2009

Posted by: Dell at February 13, 2009 4:22 PM

Leo, can you comment on how this differs from the result if you use the TweakUI PowerToy to disable? Does the PowerToy leave holes?

The Power Toy leaves holes. That's actually why I listed some of the other things that Autorun actually does. TweakUI prevents automatic playing, but may not disable the ability to modify the menu of choices, the description, or the double click action.

- Leo
14-Feb-2009

Posted by: Al Simons at February 14, 2009 11:49 AM

Shouldn't anti-virus software detect a problem?

Maybe. And do you really want to count on a maybe? The fact is that machines are getting infected every day because of autorun, with or without anti-virus installed.

- Leo
18-Feb-2009

Posted by: Daniel Klein at February 17, 2009 8:22 AM

Downloading the reg file was very easy and hopefully, no autorun for me.
Thanx Leo !
Regards

Posted by: Alexis Carabott at February 17, 2009 8:26 AM

Does this mean the 'Hold the left ShiftKey down while inserting a CD' or the instructions contained here:
http://www.base40.com/cdtTipAutoRun.htm
are not full assurances that autorun has been disabled?

That's actually why I listed some of the other things that Autorun actually does. The shift key trick prevents automatic playing, but may not disable the ability to modify the menu of choices, the description, or the double click action.

- Leo
18-Feb-2009

Posted by: B. Presti at February 17, 2009 8:38 AM

This information has been used by security conscious individuals for quite some time. Thanks for making this article in such a way that the "general public" can understand and use! I work on computers for a living and use this registry edit on every one of my customers machines for over three years. If they call me later and ask why their computer is acting a bit different, I explain and my work is more appreciated. Just an extra service at no extra charge!

Posted by: Howard Rubin at February 17, 2009 10:45 AM

Leo,

Can you please comment on the following Update statement from the CERT blog on the subject of completely disabling AutoRun:

"Microsoft Windows may cache AutoRun information from connected devices. The impact of this feature is that even after disabling AutoRun as described above, you may still experience AutoRun behaviors for devices (USB drives, network shares, etc.) that have been connected to the computer in the past. For this reason, we also recommend removing this cache by deleting the MountPoints2 registry key for each user:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2

I have tried to delete this key per their instructions but it will not stay deleted. It always returns with reboot."

Thanks in advance

Posted by: Richard Costa at February 17, 2009 10:56 AM

I had previously disabled autorun with TweakUI, but found that File Explorer would not refresh when I changed CDs! Would using the .reg fix result in the same problem?

I suspect it'll have the same issue, and further I suspect that this issue is unrelated to autorun being on or off. Remember you can always press F5 in Windows Explorer to refresh the view.

- Leo
18-Feb-2009

Posted by: Bucky at February 17, 2009 12:49 PM

I could not get rid of auto run I copied to my desktop. I then ran it and got the 2 warnings but the next time I turned on the computer the auto run still ran. Your instructions may be good for computer savy people but not me. Go ahead and laugh and put down people like me but explain things better. Yes, I gave to you tip jar 3 times when you just started.

Certainly not putting anyone down - I try very hard make my answers accessible to all. So the two warnings you got: were they from Registry Editor? And when you say "auto run still ran", what exactly still ran? How did you test it?

- Leo
18-Feb-2009

Posted by: bill at February 17, 2009 4:01 PM

I turned autorun off and Windows no longer recognizes my DVD drive.

Turned it back on - Windows now recognizes the drive.

I want it off but how to see drive?

Autorun should not affect the visibility of the drive at all. You should be able to open up Windows Explorer and see the contents of the drive manually. You're saying that's not the case?

- Leo
18-Feb-2009

Posted by: anon at February 17, 2009 5:29 PM

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