No AutoRun or AutoPlay option when installing from CD?

[William Fields]

Hello,

I've created a custom install CD and have found that it does not AutoPlay
(AutoRun?) on some workstations.

I've seen this before, but the solution was to right click on the CD drive
and select the "AutoPlay" menu option. Now I've found a workstation that
does not AutoPlay, and there's no menu item when the user right-clicks on
the CD drive, and, there's no "Install" menu option when the user right
clicks on the AutoRun.inf.

Not sure where to go with this one. The command line I want to use for the
install is in the AutoRun.inf file, do I need to create a batch file and
have the user click on it if they aren't able to execute the AutoRun.inf?

Suggestions?

--
William Fields
Code Contortionist
MCSD - Microsoft Visual FoxPro
US Bankruptcy Court
Phoenix, AZ

".dll hell - .rpm hell - whatever.
The grass is always greener"

 

[Guest]

You should be so lucky! Autorun is a Royal PITA. Particularly as you can
never tell exactly when it will happen, it may suddenly kick-in minutes after
the disc was changed.

There are a number of registry items that determine whether (and under what
circumstances) disks autorun. Chances are one of these has been modified to
nobble it. (Good idea, say I, though you are at liberty to disagree!)

http://www.theeldergeek.com/cd_autorun.htm

http://www.phdcc.com/shellrun/autorun.htm

My normal approach is to set NoDriveTypeAutoRun to 0xB5.

 

[William Fields]

Thanks, but I'm looking for recommendations I can make available to the
end-user when Auto does not work.


--
William Fields
Code Contortionist
MCSD - Microsoft Visual FoxPro
US Bankruptcy Court
Phoenix, AZ

".dll hell - .rpm hell - whatever.
The grass is always greener"

 

[Guest]

There's a high probablility it will be the NoCDAutoRun entry that's been
changed. This exists in several places, once in HKLM and once per user. If on
a domain, it might also be affected by a policy.

In principle you could create a .reg file that will reset it for the machine
and current user. Or write a small script. HST, it would be simpler to give
instructionsas to which file to launch from the CD.

 

[mgama]

As the other reply has already mentioned, Autoplay/Autorun may be disabled
on that machine. Utilities like TweakUI might be the easiest way people
enable/disable that setting. I'm guessing that your autorun.inf is bare
bones. Maybe something like:

[autorun]
open=setup.exe [additional command line args]

You can add some additional customizations to that. For example, the
following will add an additional command to the context menu (when you right
click on the CD drive) which hopefully will give you the desired behavior.

[autorun]
open=setup.exe [additional command line args]
shell\LaunchSetup\command=setup.exe [additional command line args]
shell\LaunchSetup=&Install MyApplication

-Mike

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've created a custom install CD and have found that it does not
AutoPlay (AutoRun?) on some workstations.

I've seen this before, but the solution was to right click on the
CD drive and select the "AutoPlay" menu option. Now I've found a
workstation that does not AutoPlay, and there's no menu item when
the user right-clicks on the CD drive, and, there's no "Install"
menu option when the user right clicks on the AutoRun.inf.

Not sure where to go with this one. The command line I want to use
for the install is in the AutoRun.inf file, do I need to create a
batch file and have the user click on it if they aren't able to
execute the AutoRun.inf?
Suggestions?

You should be so lucky! Autorun is a Royal PITA. Particularly as
you can never tell exactly when it will happen, it may suddenly
kick-in minutes after
the disc was changed.

There are a number of registry items that determine whether (and
under what
circumstances) disks autorun. Chances are one of these has been
modified to
nobble it. (Good idea, say I, though you are at liberty to
disagree!)
http://www.theeldergeek.com/cd_autorun.htm

http://www.phdcc.com/shellrun/autorun.htm

My normal approach is to set NoDriveTypeAutoRun to 0xB5.

Thanks, but I'm looking for recommendations I can make available to
the end-user when Auto does not work.

Unfortunately for you - unless you control all of the end-user computers
that you will ever give this CD/DVD to - there's not much you can do other
than give many alternatives. Have a "start.exe" or something in the root...
Maybe an instruction.txt file to help them out if all their explorer does is
list the contents.

 

[sdlomi2]

Hello,

I've created a custom install CD and have found that it does not AutoPlay
(AutoRun?) on some workstations.

I've seen this before, but the solution was to right click on the CD drive
and select the "AutoPlay" menu option. Now I've found a workstation that
does not AutoPlay, and there's no menu item when the user right-clicks on
the CD drive, and, there's no "Install" menu option when the user right
clicks on the AutoRun.inf.

Not sure where to go with this one. The command line I want to use for the
install is in the AutoRun.inf file, do I need to create a batch file and
have the user click on it if they aren't able to execute the AutoRun.inf?

Suggestions?

--
William Fields
Code Contortionist
MCSD - Microsoft Visual FoxPro
US Bankruptcy Court
Phoenix, AZ

".dll hell - .rpm hell - whatever.
The grass is always greener"

Try "AutoFix" from Microsoft Autoplay Repair Wizard. Tiny utility, and
simple, quick, effective. HTH, s