Autoplay happens even though disabled!

[Stan Brown]

In TweakUI Autoplay, I have UNchecked drive Z, which is my optical
drive. Nevertheless, whenever I put a data CD in the drive, it
starts up trying to find an Autoplay file. I can suppress this by
pressing and holding the Shift key, but it's a nuisance.

Any idea why Autoplay still happens even though it's turned off?

 

[Dave Smith]

In TweakUI Autoplay, I have UNchecked drive Z, which is my optical
drive. Nevertheless, whenever I put a data CD in the drive, it
starts up trying to find an Autoplay file. I can suppress this by
pressing and holding the Shift key, but it's a nuisance.

Any idea why Autoplay still happens even though it's turned off?

Try right clicking on the drive from "my computer" choose properties,
and then the autoplay tab. Check "take no action" and click o.k. do this
for each of the catagories that show in the drop down menu. Maybe my
computer is screwy, but when I did it the only way it would remember was
for me to click o.k. after each setting. Then do it again for the next
catagory on the drop down list.
for what it's worth
Dave Smith

 

[Tosca]

I had a problem with a USB memory stick opening Windows Explorer when I
plugged it in. I looked at a registry setting which allowed autoplay to be
enabled/disabled and it worked a treat. Try looking for
<NoDriveTypeAutoRun> with Google. I can't guarantee that it'll work for you
but you could have a look.

As is usual when modifying the registry, I'd advise strongly that you make a
backup and don't "play" without knowing what you're doing. Modifying the
registry can wreck your system and make it unusable, requiring an OS
reinstall!

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Stan Brown]

Try right clicking on the drive from "my computer" choose properties,
and then the autoplay tab. Check "take no action" and click o.k. do this
for each of the catagories that show in the drop down menu.

Thanks for the suggestion, but the categories aren't inclusive
enough. For instance, there's nothing there for a pure data CD-ROM,
which is the majority of the discs I insert.

The actual resolution turned out to be a registry tweak; see my
other message today in this thread.

 

[Stan Brown]

I had a problem with a USB memory stick opening Windows Explorer when I
plugged it in. I looked at a registry setting which allowed autoplay to be
enabled/disabled and it worked a treat. Try looking for
<NoDriveTypeAutoRun> with Google. I can't guarantee that it'll work for you
but you could have a look.

Thanks for the pointer. Google's first hit was a page[1] at MS that
explained there's a per-user setting (under HKCU) and a per-machine
setting (under HKLM); the HKLM setting if present overrides the
HKCU setting. NoDriTypeAutoun relates to drive categories;
NoDriveAutoRun relates to drive letters. With that hint, I started
poking through the registry.

I found that NoDriveAutoRun and NoDriveTypeAutoRun existed in HKCU
but not in HKLM. I set NoDriveAutoRun in HKLM to hex 200 0000 and
now my Z: drive no longer autoplays.

Apparently, TweakUI has a bug. (I'm shocked! shocked!) It writes to
HKCU, not HKLM. In a way it makes sense for AutoPlay to be a per-
user setting, but here's the kicker: TweakUI won't let you
customize AutoPlay at all unless you have admin privileges. Given
that I had to be administrator to run that panel of TweakUI, I
thought it must be a per-machine seting, but now I understand it's
per user.

Anyway, problem solved. Thanks!

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/93502.asp

 

[Tosca]

Glad to be of help. I've learned too, as I was unaware of the further
nuances of the HKCU vs HKLM entries and NoDriveTypeAutorun vs
NoDriveAutoRun! That's what these NGs are about after all, isn't it?

Thanks for the pointer. Google's first hit was a page[1] at MS that
explained there's a per-user setting (under HKCU) and a per-machine
setting (under HKLM); the HKLM setting if present overrides the
HKCU setting. NoDriTypeAutoun relates to drive categories;
NoDriveAutoRun relates to drive letters. With that hint, I started
poking through the registry.

I found that NoDriveAutoRun and NoDriveTypeAutoRun existed in HKCU
but not in HKLM. I set NoDriveAutoRun in HKLM to hex 200 0000 and
now my Z: drive no longer autoplays.

Apparently, TweakUI has a bug. (I'm shocked! shocked!) It writes to
HKCU, not HKLM. In a way it makes sense for AutoPlay to be a per-
user setting, but here's the kicker: TweakUI won't let you
customize AutoPlay at all unless you have admin privileges. Given
that I had to be administrator to run that panel of TweakUI, I
thought it must be a per-machine seting, but now I understand it's
per user.

Anyway, problem solved. Thanks!

[1]
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/93502.asp