How to Turn Off AutoRun, Auto insert, and AutoPlay
You can turn off the Auto insert notification
for your CD drives, and/or disable Windows AutoPlay.
To disable AutoPlay:
1. Double-click the My Computer icon.
2. On the View (or Tools) menu, click Options (or Folder Options), and then
click the File Types tab.
3. Click the AudioCD type, and then click Edit (or Advanced).
4. In the Actions list, click Play, and then click Set Default.
To reenable AutoPlay, repeat steps 1-4. In some cases you may have to actually
delete the "Play" action. If you do that, note the command being
issued, in case you want to add it back. You can still play CDs by manually
starting up that player program.
To turn off Auto insert notification for your CD drive, RIGHT-click on your
"My Computer" icon, select Properties, click the Device Manager tab,
double-click on CDROM, double-click on the name of your CD-ROM drive, click
the Settings tab, and remove the checkmark in the Auto insert notification
box by clicking on it, then click the OK button. You will have to reboot
your computer before this change takes effect.
These instructions may vary depending on your version of Windows, but hopefully
you can figure it out. Here are some more instructions on how to do this:
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Turn Off the CD-ROM Autorun
When an Autorun-enabled CD-ROM is inserted into a CD-ROM drive, Windows
automatically launches the program contained on the disk, whether you want it to
or not. Similarly the audio CD player pops up whenever you insert an audio CD
and starts playing it immediately. Some programs you install may also set
themselves up to run automatically when you insert an audio CD. This is cute the
first or second time, but soon gets infuriating. What's worse, is that if you
double-click on the CD icon in My Computer, the autorun fires up, instead of a
folder window as you'd expect. This is especially irritating on slower
computers, where you have to wait for what seems like an eternity for it to load
some ridiculous welcome screen. Here's how to turn off Autorun:
Any OS
If you hold down the Shift key when inserting the CD, the autorun is bypassed.
(although it's not exactly graceful trying to insert a CD while holding down
keys on the keyboard.)
Windows XP - Solution 1
1.) Right-click on the drive icon for your CD drive, CD recorder, or DVD drive,
and select Properties.
2.) Choose the AutoPlay tab, and choose the desired action for each type of CD.
For example, choose Music CD, then click Select an action to perform, then
select Take no action or delete the "Play" action.
Windows XP - Solution 2
Obtain and install TweakUI (part of the PowerToys for Windows XP package), and
then start TweakUI.
Expand the My Computer branch, then the AutoPlay branch, and then select
Drives.
Turn off the checkbox next to each drive letter for which you want AutoPlay
disabled.
Windows 2000/XP - Solution 3
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Just type that program name into the box
after choosing "Run" from the Start menu.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom.
Double-click the Autorun value, and type 0 for its value. (If it's not there,
create it by selecting Edit -> New -> DWORD Value, and typing "Autorun"
for its name.)
You may have to log out and then log back in for this change to take
effect.
Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a
new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed
in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.
Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 1
Right-click on the My Computer icon, and select Properties.
Choose the Device Manager tab.
Open the CD-ROM branch, and select the entry for your CD-ROM drive.
Click Properties, and then choose the Settings tab.
Turn off the Auto insert notification option.
Click OK, and then OK again. You'll have to restart Windows for this change to
take effect.
Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a
new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed
in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.
Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 2
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE).
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\
Explorer.
Change the Value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun from 95 00 00 00 to BD 00 00 00.
You might have to restart Windows for this change to take effect.
Note: With this solution, Windows will no longer be notified when you insert a
new CD. To make sure the correct icon and title for the current CD are displayed
in My Computer and Explorer, press F5 to refresh the window.
Windows 95/98/Me - Solution 3
Because of new features in TweakUI, this can now be truly disabled by turning
off the Play audio CDs automatically and Play data CDs automatically options in
the aptly-named Paranoia tab.
Also, make sure that the AutoInsertNotification option is turned back on - see
Solution #1 above for more information.
Note: With this solution, Windows will still be notified when you insert a new
CD, so you may not want to do this if you use CD Recorder software (the constant
polling can interrupt the recording process).
