How-To Tuesday: Disable AutoRun on Windows!

Yes, this is a bit of a report from our post Monday, but we feel disabling Autorun is extremely important.  Last week we went off to buy a CD—something we, like a lot of people, do on a regular basis. We wanted to check out "Contraband" by Velvet Revolver, the group formed by ex-members of Guns N' Roses, and the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots. We figured with that much drugs in those boys, there's bound to be a good tune or two in there.

As with all our CDs, we unwrapped 8 layers of plastic on the way to the car and popped it in the CD player for the ride home, so far, so good—not a bad CD at all. After arriving home, we put the CD in our Xbox (as we always do with our CDs) to copy the songs over to the hard drive for use with games or as a jukebox.

Next up, inserted the disc in to our Mac, started iTunes and then iTunes put the newly created MP3s on our iPod. Also, the Linux box in our kitchen (Xandros) was able to read and make MP3s just fine too.

Lastly, we popped the CD in our PC (Win XP) and also ran iTunes to add the songs to our library.

Was this all a dream? Did it really happen? It did. But it shouldn't have if it were up to the people who made that CD.

After looking around on the web it seems the folks from RCA Records actually don't want anyone to make MP3s of the songs on that disc, they don't want you to listen to the music you just purchased on your iPod or even your Xbox.

The disc has "Copy Protection" from SunnComm called MediaMax, which on some Windows systems will force the user to install software in order to listen to their music, and restrict what they do with the audio (for example you cannot make MP3s). If SunnComm sounds familiar, they should.  These are the folks who were going to sue a Princeton student for 10 million dollars for writing a paper that showed by pressing the shift key while inserting the CD (and of course, pressing the shift key still worked on this CD, according to all reports) you can bypass their copy protection.

Sadly, the way RCA and SunnComm want you to listen to music is pretty complicated. You'd need to insert the CD on your PC, wait up to one minute for it to load, click an end user agreement, then only "listen" to the music.  Oh, wait there's more.  It installs software which blocks making MP3s and it requires a web connection to exchange "data" and keys. On the disc there were music files in WMA format, but they don't seem to play on any device we have which plays WMAs—the site says they play only on "approved" devices.  Yikes!

Well, for us, it wasn't an issue.  Why? Well, we have always disabled "Auto-Run" on our Windows based system, since, like, Windows 95. The "feature" will, by default, automatically look for a file called Autorun.inf on any CD you pop in to your system—if it finds it, it will execute whatever programs it is instructed.  This is a big security issue, as there are a lot of spywares and viruses distributed on CDs—so much so, in fact, Microsoft is disabling it in their next security-focused Windows XP Service Pack 2.  SunnComn and everyone else who is trying to "copy protect" music CDs have really only one option, and this is it: using the autorun file on their music CDs to install their proprietary DRM software.  But many people are becoming more vigilant about securing their systems.

Disabling Auto-Run is something we think everyone should do, not only for security from viruses and spyware, but so you'll never need to deal being unable able to listen to your music on your devices. Here's how to do it in Windows XP.

In Windows Click Start, then Click Run

Type regedit
Click OK

Click >
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>
SYSTEM>
CurrentControlSet>
Services>
Cdrom>

Double click "Autorun" the value is set to 1 by default, change it to zero.

Click OK
Now restart, that's it!

We also created a file which will do this for you, just right click this link and "save target as" to your local file system. Then double click and restart.

Please, tell everyone to disable autorun, use our email option, IM your pals, whatever it takes.

If you a different Operating system or would like to learn more about disabling AutoRun, here's a great article too.

[ChainsawJoe @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

This is the same feature as Monday, and you still haven't finished the sentence "..for writing a paper that showed by pressing the shift key while inserting the CD (and of course, pressing the shift key still works on this CD too according to all reports)."!! :( I look forward to the How To Tues'..

[lightning @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I've run into some "helpful" applications that re-enable autorun. You might want to check now and again to be sure that it's still off.

[Dartagnan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

what if the mediamax is already installed on your Computer will this still work? if not how do you get rid of mediamax?

[Branille @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I've always wanted to disable autorun but never knew how. Thanks so much for the step-by-step!

[Matt @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Whenever I connect my USB harddrive it starts searching all 250gigs, so this is a great help!

[Joe McKenzie @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

If a dialog box comes up telling you what folder it's searching for content, that's autoplay, not autorun. (This happens whenever I put in a data DVD I burned.) Were it just autorun, it would'nt do any searching, but just try to open D:autorun.inf, get a "not found" and give up. Autorun does a lot of bad stuff, but it doesn't scan through a drive's entire contents.

Autoplay, however, activates when Autorun fails to find its file. It searches the whole disk for picture, video and music files so it can offer to playe them for you. It will also detect audio CDs and play them through WiMP (though not if Autorun gets in there and installs a DRM thingie first), along with DVDs and blank media. Programs can install new actions that can be taken when the following are encountered: pictures, music files, videos, "mixed content" (one or more of the above), music CD, DVD movie and blank CD. The user can set a default action from the drive properties box (in My Computer) so that it will take the action automatically without asking. You can disable autoplay on a per-drive-letter basis through TweakUI XP.

To sum it up: Autorun will open a menu or program unique to a CD, if defined in autorun.inf. Autoplay scans an entire disc for playable content if Autorun fails to find its INF file.

[Dick @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

It doesn't work.
I followed the instructions perfectly, my registry file is set at 0 but when I insert a cd, it auto runs.
Specifically, I play EA's F1 Challenge. I also play 2 mods, Sports Car Challenge & European Touring Car Championship that run off of the EA F1 cd. I cannot play these 2 mods until the F1 game auto starts & runs, then I stop the F1 game, and run another of my 2 mods. But I want to diable autorun so F1 doesn't start. It's a pain. Is there another way?

[Timothy Schmits @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I had some trouble getting that to work on Windows XP Pro. I switched the value back to "1" and tried this link, and it worked:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/tips/cd_autoplay_pro.htm

[Igor @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I don't have any GPEDIT.MSC, I want to put auto-play back ON, changeing the value to 1 doesn't work, I don't know why....

[BF @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I've tried the disable autorun on XP and it doesn't work. Can't find GPEDIT.MSC so can't make much use of the autoplay solution. any other ideas?

[Andrei @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Thanks, this is dope.

I think some installers re-enable the option upon execution.

[Scott @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Much easier / Safer way to disable Autoplay on Win XP:

From the start menu, click run and enter

GPEDIT.MSC

Select 'Administrative templates / System'

double click on 'Disable autoplay' in the right pane

......

[Fuck You @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Just set HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesCdromAutorun to 0. If it doesn't work, then you need to reboot your computer. If it still doesn't work, then go back to the registry and make sure it didn't get changed back to 1 by some intrusive program.

Ignore this GPEDIT.MSC bullshit. They're just trying to sell you a program.

[Not Me @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

GPEDIT.MSC is only available on XP Pro, It is not an additional program to buy as previously stated.

>>There is no such thing as GPEDIT.MSC you moron. Stop posting false information.

>>Ignore this GPEDIT.MSC bullshit. They're just trying to sell you a program.

[john dee @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

> GPEDIT.MSC is only available on XP Pro, It is
> not an additional program to buy as
> previously stated.

Absolutely correct. It's the Group Policy Editor that comes with XP Pro.

>> There is no such thing as GPEDIT.MSC you
>> moron. Stop posting false information.

>> Ignore this GPEDIT.MSC bullshit. They're
>> just trying to sell you a program.

Enough with the ad hominems you morons.

[ITGuy @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

LOL... no such thing as GPEDIT.MSC. That's the funniest thing I've heard in at least a week.

[Ric @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Editing GPEDIT.MSC worked for me in disabling Autoplay, so it clearly exists on XP.

[Laalaa @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

....and also in Win2KSP2. It's just a sort-of shortcut to get you quickly to the same place as Setting/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services. Moron was a good term for....the moron.

[Da GuvMint's Reeda @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Keep dem 4 letta woids off heer, or da guy on
da white horse (the correct answer to what color was George#1's horse) will make you
type the 4 letter word
READ
and the other 2 4 letter words,
MAKE NICE
over and over, while installing a "WORM"
to disable your CUT-and-Paste privilj's

[Da GuvMint's Reeda @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Keep dem 4 letta woids off heer, or da guy on
da white horse (the correct answer to what color was George#1's horse) will make you
type the 4 letter word
READ
and the other 2 4 letter words,
MAKE NICE
over and over, while installing a "WORM"
to disable your CUT-and-Paste privilj's

[rawk @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Is this the Royal We? Why can't you write in the first person? What, you all put the CD in the PC? Did you take it in turns or did you all hold onto it and carefully choreograph it?

[eric @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Misusing RegEdit can Cheney your computer up but good. In theory, one should back up the registry before making any changes. In practice, double-check back and make sure you're editing *exactly* the right thing and *only* the right thing.

[Yagame @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

Yeah, It doesnt get any more lame than there lame as attempts at copy right protection. Reminds me of the days of PCfriendly software that a lot of people will unwittingly load when trying to view dvd's. Thanx a Mil. I forgot the site i used for disabling the autorun. BTW. Would anyone happen to know why my nec 2500 freezes when ever it auto loads disks??

DM

[drew @ Dec 19th 2005 2:26AM]

I just want to say fuck you to FUCK YOU! LOL! "There's no such thing as GPEDIT.MSC...just trying to sell you a program." Get with it man. Start doing some research before you make such postings...MORON!