

AutoRun Settings 1.2


Easy access to basic registry settings for AutoRun under Windows 2000, XP. Other
system are untested.

Freeware

VB6 runtime required.


AutoRun can be disabled depending on the drive type and depending on the drive letter
by Explorer Policies.

These values are
- NoDriveAutoRun
and
- NoDriveTypeAutoRun

under
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

They are valid under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. If a value exist
under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then the same value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER is ignored.
Microsoft TweakUI sets the values under HKEY_CURRENT_USER only and completely ignores 
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Furthermore TweakUI cannot make settings for hard drives and it
_enables_ AutoRun for network drives which opens a security hole.

NoDriveAutoRun
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/58886.mspx

By default (the value doesn't exist) AutoRun is enabled for all drive letters.


NoDriveTypeAutoRun
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/93502.mspx

By default (the value doesn't exist) AutoRun is enabled for CD/DVD and unknown drives.
Under XP it is enabled by default for removable drives too.

This tool inverts these inverse settings, so, to enable something set a check mark.



For CD/DVD drives the 'auto insert notification' aka 'Media Change Notification (MCN)' must
be active to make AutoRun possible and is required to make Windows see disk changes. 
It's no risk to keep this enabled.
This is controlled by the value AutoRun under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/30300.mspx

To take effect a reboot is required.



The settings had no effect on manual acitions, as "Double Click" and "Context Menu".
There is an update for all Windows version since Windows 2000 which let apply the well
known autorun settings to manual actions too, see here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953252
After installing the update Windows looks at the HonorAutorunSetting value.


Another way to get the same effect is to redirect the reading to any autorun.inf file
into the Windows Registry. This is done by checking "block autorun.inf".

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf
The 'default' value is set to the value "@SYS:DoesNotExist"

Read more here:
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA09-020A.html





Uwe Sieber

June 2009



