Disabling AutoPlay

[Rich Pasco]

Every time I attach an external hard disk, my Windows XP system spends a
long time rummaging through all of its folders searching for various
media file. How can I prevent it from doing this?

I already opened on "My Computer", right-clicked on my drive and chose
Properties. On the tab AutoPlay, for each class of file (Music,
Pictures, Video, Mixed), I chose "Take No Action".

But that doesn't stop XP from rummaging throuh all my files each time I
connect the external drive.

- Rich

 

[JS]

Try Power Toy's Tweak UI from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Install, run and expand as follows: 'My Computer', 'Auto Play', 'Types'
check the option to disable
this feature for removable drives.

More Detail on available features in Tweak UI:
http://www.winxpsolution.com/Tweakuixppro.aspx

JS

 

[Rich Pasco]

I found this line "Removable Devices- AutoPlay: Off or On"
here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
I ran usboff.reg and it seemed to do what I wanted.

I still wonder if I could have done this from Control Panel or
System Manager or whatever.

- Rich

 

[Rich Pasco]

Thanks, that looks like what I wanted.

Too bad I couldn't do that with Windows out-of-the-box.

 

[Slap]

I found this line "Removable Devices- AutoPlay: Off or On"
here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
I ran usboff.reg and it seemed to do what I wanted.

I still wonder if I could have done this from Control Panel or
System Manager or whatever.

- Rich

Probably not. That's why the usboff.reg was put together. People helping
people. The folks that wrote the operating system, no matter how much time
they had, can't think of everything.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Strange that this helps. The usboff.reg just sets back the
NoDriveTypeAutoRun value to its XP default value of 0x95.
This deactivates AutoRun for drives with a drivetype
DRIVE_REMOVABLE, DRIVE_REMOTE and DRIVE_NO_ROOT. An USB
hard drive usually has DRIVE_FIXED, so AutoRun for your
hard drive should still be activated.
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/93502.mspx>

TweakUI is no help here, it cares about DRIVE_CDROM and
DRIVE_REMOVABLE only and always enables all other types.

I've made a little too that gives easy access to the
AutoRun settings:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/autorunsettings.zip


Uwe

 

[Rich Pasco]

Thank you, Uwe, this is very helpful. It helps me understand
how these tools work.

I agree it's strange that usboff.reg and/or TweakUI help me.
My external drive is listed in My Computer under Hard Disk Drives
as a "Local Disk". And yet, now that my value of
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutoRun
is 0x000000b5, the sum of 0x1 (unknown types), 0x4 (floppy drives),
0x10 (network drives), 0x20 (CD-ROM drives), and 0x80 (unknown types),
the Autoplay window no longer opens. I don't know why that helps me,
but it does.

Your utility is very nice! It sure beats doing the arithmetic
and running RegEdit.

- Rich

 

[ThoraD]

Run - mmc - add Group Policy snapin (Local Computer) - Expand Local Computer
Policy - Computer Configuration (or User Configuration if you are the only
one who dislike autorun) - Administrative templates - System. Enable "Turn
off Autoplay"

ThoraD

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Under XP this writes a value of 0xB5 for NoDriveTypeAutoRun which
means that AutoRun for FIXED drives is still enabled then.

Uwe