CD Autorun

[J Feola]

OK, Just received a new DELL Prec. 4300 w/WinXP. When I put in a CD, like a
install disk the CD rom drive just spins and will not launch the install
program, tried many. This is also true for USB drives that have
initialization programs built in like the cruze drives.

If I put in a movie dvd it launches fine. I have gone thru tweakui,
autofix, checking policies and making sure the drive wasn't set no to run.
and as usual DELL has no clue.

 

[Jerry]

If Dell has no clue then what does that tell you about buying from Dell?
Take it back.

 

[Anteaus]

Are you SURE you want this dangerous and annoying feature active?

Have you considered that Dell may have turned it off to protect your
interests, because they DO care about customers' computers, and perhaps have
shown a little more intelligence re security than Microsoft?

As long ago as Win95's prime I had to flatten and rebuild my workstation
after an unknown executable ran itself from a writeable CD. It might or might
not have been malware, but it clearly had modified the OS, and done so
without putting-up any prior dialog-box, so I wasn't prepared to take the
chance.

What's worse was that I HAD turned AutoRun off in the registry, and an app
which I had installed had turned it back on without my knowledge. That
company got one of the most blistering letters I've ever written. They were
lucky I'm in the non-litigious UK. I guess a USA resident might've sought
compensation.