How To...  Disable Autorun

Unfortunately these days you cannot nessessarily trust that a CD will be safe for your computer. A few years ago, Sony got into quite a lot of trouble by inventing a new kind of spyware that would install itself from their CDs onto your computer and change the way that your computer worked without your knowledge or permission. This "rootkit" has grown into a MAJOR headache for Information Security personnel around the world as the code was then pickedup and used by hackers for all sorts of nefarious reasons.

With autorun enabled, a CD will automatically launch any program it is setup to run. All you need to do is insert the disk and it will launch. This is a huge security hole, so we recommend that you disable autorun... Here is how:

Disable Autorun for your CD-Rom (and USB)

Note: This has been tested on Windows 2000, XP

1. There are 2 ways to do this.
   
   
   • Recommended: You can download, unzip and run one of these files and you are done!
     Windows Vista / XP / 2000 (Verify this download)
     Windows 95 / 98 / ME (Verify this download)
     
     
   • Or you can modify the registry yourself by following these instructions.
     
     
2. WARNING: We do not recommend you edit the registry on your own.
   If you accidentally change the wrong key or value, you can foul things up to the point that you might have to reinstall the whole Operating System to recover...
   
   That being said, if you are comforatable with the registry, here is what you do:
   
   
3. Click the Start Button, then click Run...
   
   
   
   
   
4. In the window that pops up, enter "regedit" in the Open text box, then click OK
   
   
   
   
   
5. The Registery Editor will open and look like this:
   
   
   
   
   
6. Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Services
   
   
   
   
   
7. Under Services, click Cdrom (left pane) and then double-click AutoRun (Right Pane)
   
   
   
   
   
8. This window will open. Enter 0 under Value Data (as shown) and then Click OK
   
   
   
   
9. If you just want to disable the CDRom, Exit the Registry Editor now. If you want to disable USB autorun as well, proceed...
   
   
10. Go back to the top of the registry (as shown in step 5) and click the following (left pane)
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > Explorer
    Double-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun (right pane)
    
    
    
    
11. This window will open.
    For Windows 2000/XP, enter B5 under Value Data and ensure that Hexadecimal is selected (as shown)
    For Windows 95/98/ME, enter BD under Value Data and ensure that Hexadecimal is selected
    Tthen Click OK
    
    
    
    
12. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your machine.
    
    
13. For more information, or if your system is not Windows XP, see http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article03-018
    http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/09/11/disable-auto-run-and-auto-play-of-u3-smart-drives-launchpad/