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

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Summary: Auto-play can be a convenient feature but if it's not what you want it can be difficult to turn off and keep off. The TweakUI utility can fix that.

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

The auto-play feature in Windows was significantly beefed up when Windows XP was introduced. For CD and DVD drives specifically, Windows will first attempt to determine what type of media you've inserted and then perform an appropriate action. If it doesn't know what action is appropriate, it asks along with providing the option to remember that action for next time.

Seems fair enough, except that when I encountered it for the first time it kept forgetting the settings and would always ask. From my perspecitive that's worse that not having auto-play at all. And then I couldn't turn it off.

If that sounds familiar, then you know my frustration.

Enter one of my favorite Windows add-ons: TweakUI, one of what Microsoft calls "Power Toys for Windows XP". It's more than a toy. It allows you to adjust (or 'tweak') several settings that aren't exposed directly by the standard Windows tools.

Once you've installed TweakUI you'll find a lot of options in it. For our current problem, in TweakUI expand My Computer, and then AutoPlay. Click on Drives and uncheck the drive letter that you no longer want to AutoPlay. Click on Apply and that's it. No more "what would you like me to do" dialogs.

TweakUI has a number of other settings, I encourage you to install it and browse around in it. It's something I install on every computer I run. (The PowerToys page has a number of nifty tools as well, have a look while you're there).

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Article 142 | Posted January 21, 2004

Recent Comments

Use TweakUI

Posted by: Leo at March 26, 2006 12:47 PM

TweakUI certainly can do but would be great to know about any Admin key options or registry keys.

Posted by: zag at March 27, 2006 01:01 AM

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Locate and click the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
3. To disable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 0 (zero). To enable automatically running CD-ROMs, change the Autorun value to 1.
4. Restart your computer.
NOTE: This method disables automatically running CD-ROMs. If you want to disable automatically running CD-ROMs depending on the CD-ROM that you insert in the CD-ROM drive, you can press and hold down one of the SHIFT key while you insert the CD-ROM.


(From the microsoft site)

Posted by: Mark at March 31, 2006 04:19 PM

Thanks Mark.

Posted by: zag at April 8, 2006 06:53 PM

For the newest version of TweakUI (2.10.0.0),
find autoplay this way:

On the left outline, click My Computer.
Under that, select AutoPlay.

You could uncheck individual drives, but
look at the Types setting first. Unchecking
just one box in Types may do the trick.

IMHO the Handlers item is useless.
Most of the entries cannot be deleted
and most of the details (file args and
wording) can't be changed either. I have
one entry that always appears on autoplay,
but the args are wrong, so it doesn't work.
TweakUI is no help for that one.

Posted by: doug at May 26, 2006 10:34 AM

My HD is autoplaying. What can I do? Please help me, Thanks

Posted by: Imrul at February 6, 2007 10:53 AM

The Microsoft site says that the power toys (including TweakUI) only work under US English regional settings. What do you think will happen if I use it under UK English regional settings?

Posted by: Sandy at February 10, 2007 05:03 PM

Another application I have that I like is "The Ultimate Troubleshooter" from Answers That Work (www.answersthatwork.com). It has a section for tweaking as well ... one of which is turning off CD auto-play.

Posted by: Mike Turner at March 23, 2007 08:27 PM

Best option is to press one of the shift key while inserting thumb drive.

Posted by: TechnoLaziness at March 15, 2008 03:41 PM

I'd like to thank you for saving my sanity by posting this information. The Auto-play window was running over and over on my daughter's computer and I could not turn it off. Each time it popped up, we were unable to type or use any other application whatsoever. I suspected spyware also.

I got on my laptop, googled "remove auto-play", found your site, downloaded TweakU and in the process I found that several media drives had been installed on her computer. I disabled autoplay on all of them, thanks to the TweakU program and also began running the anti-malware, anti-virues.. etc atc.

Before I found your site I was about to throw the computer in the pool. I've since bookmarked this site and I'd like to Thank You Very Very Much!!

Posted by: Laura at March 24, 2008 06:12 PM

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