Is there *really* an Auto-Insert Notification setting for XP-SP3?

[XP Guy]

In my research I've come across descriptions of some mythical check-box
for the theoretical "Auto-Insert Notification" (AIN) process or feature,
but I can find no such check-box in the device manager CD-rom settings
nor the right-click-properties for the CD drive.

(I've confirmed that an AIN check-box does exist under win-98)

I know that AIN is related to (or is *defined* by?) the CD's autoplay
setting(s), but it's not intuitive that just having all the settings set
to "Do Nothing" will actually turn off AIN.

A registry search for "auto-insert" and "autoinsert" turns up nothing.
Well, almost nothing - there is an autoinsert reg setting (several of
them) for Windows MediaPlayer. I'm guessing this isin't what I'm
looking for.

So is there such a service or low-level AIN function in XP-SP3 that I
can *really* turn off somehow?

 

[Mayayana]

You mean that you want to stop drive polling?
If you get TweakUI XP and open to Auto Play,
I think unchecking the drive letter in the "Drives"
submenu is what you want.

Under the "types" submenu you can set autoplay
settings. With that you can eliminate the inane
box that asks, "What do you want to do?"

Then inane options in that inane box can be a pain
in the neck. A lot of add more without asking. You
can delete some of them , if you want to, by deleting
the Registry subkeys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers

--
--
| In my research I've come across descriptions of some mythical check-box
| for the theoretical "Auto-Insert Notification" (AIN) process or feature,
| but I can find no such check-box in the device manager CD-rom settings
| nor the right-click-properties for the CD drive.
|
| (I've confirmed that an AIN check-box does exist under win-98)
|
| I know that AIN is related to (or is *defined* by?) the CD's autoplay
| setting(s), but it's not intuitive that just having all the settings set
| to "Do Nothing" will actually turn off AIN.
|
| A registry search for "auto-insert" and "autoinsert" turns up nothing.
| Well, almost nothing - there is an autoinsert reg setting (several of
| them) for Windows MediaPlayer. I'm guessing this isin't what I'm
| looking for.
|
| So is there such a service or low-level AIN function in XP-SP3 that I
| can *really* turn off somehow?

 

[Keith Nuttle]

You mean that you want to stop drive polling?
If you get TweakUI XP and open to Auto Play,
I think unchecking the drive letter in the "Drives"
submenu is what you want.

Under the "types" submenu you can set autoplay
settings. With that you can eliminate the inane
box that asks, "What do you want to do?"

Then inane options in that inane box can be a pain
in the neck. A lot of add more without asking. You
can delete some of them , if you want to, by deleting
the Registry subkeys under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers

As I understand what you are looking for you will find in the Drive
Properties. Find the icon for the CD/DVD drive, and right click on the
icon. The second tab from the left is Autoplay. You can set the options
to perform as part of the autoplay.

There is also an option to prompt you each time you add a new disk.

 

[XP Guy]

Keith Nuttle unnecessarily full-quoted:

As I understand what you are looking for you will find in the Drive
Properties.

I do not want the OS to be notified of a CD insert event.

Which means I don't want the CD drive to be polled once-per-second
continuously.

Setting the various "what do you want to happen if you insert a disk
containing _x_" idiotic settings will not necessarily accomplish what I
want. XP will still somehow know that a new CD was inserted.

Those settings (even if ALL of them are set to "do nothing") will not
necessarily prevent XP from constantly checking if a new CD is being
inserted.

There is also an option to prompt you each time you add a new disk.

Where is that?

 

[Mayayana]

| As I understand what you are looking for you will find in the Drive
| Properties. Find the icon for the CD/DVD drive, and right click on the
| icon. The second tab from the left is Autoplay. You can set the options
| to perform as part of the autoplay.
|

There are two different things. One is polling
to see if a disk has been inserted. That's what
allows Windows to know there's a disk in the first
place. Autoplay is different. That's what controls
whether Windows attempts to run a found disk.

 

[Mayayana]

| > There is also an option to prompt you each time you add a new disk.
|
| Where is that?

I'm pretty sure I already gave you the answer.
He seems to be talking about the option to select
the default handler. Disabling polling is *not* a GUI
option in XP. (Yes, it was in 98, but it's not in XP.)

 

[XP Guy]

Disabling polling is *not* a GUI option in XP.

Ok, can polling be disabled with a registry setting?

 

[Uwe Sieber]

In my research I've come across descriptions of some mythical check-box
for the theoretical "Auto-Insert Notification" (AIN) process or feature,
but I can find no such check-box in the device manager CD-rom settings
nor the right-click-properties for the CD drive.

(I've confirmed that an AIN check-box does exist under win-98)

True, the checkbox is gone. With AIN enabled the drive is
polled for media changes, in the old times this sometimes
caused problems when burning CDs. Today there should be
no problems having this enabled.

I know that AIN is related to (or is *defined* by?) the CD's autoplay
setting(s), but it's not intuitive that just having all the settings set
to "Do Nothing" will actually turn off AIN.

AIN is required for CD autorun and autoplay. Without it,
a new media is not detected.

The setting has the misleading name "AutoRun" and is found under
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/30300.mspx

Here is my tool AutoRunSettings which can make this
setting too.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#autorun


Uwe

 

[Keith Nuttle]

Keith Nuttle unnecessarily full-quoted:


I do not want the OS to be notified of a CD insert event.

Which means I don't want the CD drive to be polled once-per-second
continuously.

Setting the various "what do you want to happen if you insert a disk
containing _x_" idiotic settings will not necessarily accomplish what I
want. XP will still somehow know that a new CD was inserted.

Those settings (even if ALL of them are set to "do nothing") will not
necessarily prevent XP from constantly checking if a new CD is being
inserted.


Where is that?

On the Properties page that was discussed above. Scroll down to thee
last item in the window. "Take No Acton"

 

[XP Guy]

On the Properties page that was discussed above. Scroll down to the
last item in the window. "Take No Action"

And you're absolutely sure that "Take no Action" is THE SAME AS TURNING
OFF Auto-insert notification polling ???

 

[XP Guy]

AIN is required for CD autorun and autoplay. Without it,
a new media is not detected.

The setting has the misleading name "AutoRun" and is found under
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/30300.mspx

Here is my tool AutoRunSettings which can make this
setting too.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html#autorun

I really don't give a rat's ass about auto-run, unless the auto-run
settings have ultimate control over the polling done by the "Auto-Insert
Notification" service (if indeed this can be called a service).

Can the AIN "service" or function be disabled -> without needing to deal
with or pay attention to the garbage auto-play settings?

(how many times can I ask the same question and be constantly told or be
given instructions pertaining to the autoplay garbage???)

 

[Uwe Sieber]

I really don't give a rat's ass about auto-run, unless the auto-run
settings have ultimate control over the polling done by the "Auto-Insert
Notification" service (if indeed this can be called a service).

You don't need any autorun settings, the setting just
has the misleading name "AutoRun". But it controls
if the media change notification (MCN) is sent which
also called "auto insert notification".

Can the AIN "service" or function be disabled -> without needing to deal
with or pay attention to the garbage auto-play settings?

Sure, just the this value to 0 and restart.

Or use my tool and just "give a rat's ass" about anything
else the checkbox named "insert notification" right of "CD/DVD",
press "Apply". Restart the system.


Uwe

 

[Nil]

(how many times can I ask the same question and be constantly told
or be given instructions pertaining to the autoplay garbage???)

I'd say that if you keep up with the snotty entitlement attitude... not
very many more times - people will stop wasting their valuable time
trying to be helpful.

 

[XP Guy]

The setting has the misleading name "AutoRun" and is found under
KLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/30300.mspx

Alright. Yes - thankyou Uwe.

I can confirm that setting the "Autorun" value from 1 to 0 at this
registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Cdrom

Will turn off the Auto-Insert Notification process or service.

And now for all of you spread across the internet, across many years,
who have asked:

"why does my hard drive LED constantly flash once per second"

I can say that this is the answer. Setting this "Autorun" registry
value to zero (0) will stop this irritating, constantly flashing LED.

Now why this info is hidden or not disclosed as applicable to Windows XP
- I don't know. All the references I can find to that key value says
that it applies to Win-2K.

 

[Mayayana]

| I can say that this is the answer. Setting this "Autorun" registry
| value to zero (0) will stop this irritating, constantly flashing LED.
|

That's *very* interesting. But what does the hard disk
activity light have to do with the CD? Are you saying
that shutting off *CD* auto-insert shuts off the hard disk
light? If you do that then doesn't it also prevent the CD
drive from recognizing an inserted CD?

 

[XP Guy]

| I can say that this is the answer. Setting this "Autorun"
| registry value to zero (0) will stop this irritating, constantly
| flashing LED.

That's *very* interesting. But what does the hard disk activity
light have to do with the CD?

Because the hard-drive LED light will flash when-ever the motherboard
drive controller is active. And the drive controller is active
when-ever the OS is asking it to perform some action on an attached
drive.

Optical drives and hard drives are connected to the drive controller (be
they both SATA or IDE).

In this case, both the hard drive and CD drive are SATA, and they're
connected to the SATA ports on the motherboard.

Are you saying that shutting off *CD* auto-insert shuts off the
hard disk light?

I'm saying that by default, XP checks the CD-rom drive once-per-second,
all day, 24/7. That's how the Auto-play function is invoked - as a
result of XP knowing that something has changed in the CD drive.

If you turn off this once-per-second checking (with the above registry
key) then autoplay can't work - regardless what your GUI auto-play
settings are.

And the LED will no longer flash once-per-second for no apparent reason.

This doesn't turn off or disable the functionality of the hard-drive
LED. The LED will still flash when-ever some drive activity happens.

If you do that then doesn't it also prevent the CD
drive from recognizing an inserted CD?

Yes - and that is something I can live with very easily. I can go days,
weeks or months without putting a disk in the CD drive.

And even when I do put in a CD disk, I end up cancelling the auto-play
junk and I bring up the file explorer to do what-ever I need to do with
the disk.

 

[Mayayana]

Thank you for that detailed explanation. I don't think
I want to disable the CD drive, but I have been wondering
for a very long time why that disk light keeps flashing. It's
nice to finally have an explanation.

 

[XP Guy]

Thank you for that detailed explanation. I don't think
I want to disable the CD drive,

The CD drive is not being disabled with this registry setting. It
continues to work just fine.

 

[Mayayana]

| > Thank you for that detailed explanation. I don't think
| > I want to disable the CD drive,
|
| The CD drive is not being disabled with this registry setting. It
| continues to work just fine.

Ah, you're right. I changed the setting and rebooted.
What a pleasure not to have that light blinking constantly!
Now if I could just get Online Armor to stop it's nonsensical,
periodic attempt to open files that don't exist... Originally I
thought that was causing the blinking. But now with CD
polling shut off I can run Filemon and watch Online Armor
trying to open files, and it actually doesn't cause the light
to blink.

 

[PeterC]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/30300.mspx

Alright. Yes - thankyou Uwe.

I can confirm that setting the "Autorun" value from 1 to 0 at this
registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Cdrom

Will turn off the Auto-Insert Notification process or service.

And now for all of you spread across the internet, across many years,
who have asked:

"why does my hard drive LED constantly flash once per second"

I can say that this is the answer. Setting this "Autorun" registry
value to zero (0) will stop this irritating, constantly flashing LED.

Now why this info is hidden or not disclosed as applicable to Windows XP
- I don't know. All the references I can find to that key value says
that it applies to Win-2K.

I wondered where the blinking light had gone! I'd disabled this key with a
tweaking tool but not realised the side-effect.
Actually, I'd assumed that the the activity was due to one instance of
svchost.exe - the one that has a lot of processes - incrementing I/O Write
Bytes once per second; that is still happening (only when connected to
t'internet) and I've never managed to find out why - any ideas, please?