How do i disable AUTORUN windows 7

I have Windows 7 home edition. I want to disable COMPLETLY the autorun feature.

I would like to use the basic «gpedit» tool but it is not available on home edition (that’s very sad!)

I have tried the autoplay config in the Control Panel/Hardware and Sound but it doesn’t work. I still see my USB external drive icon «WD» appear in MyComputer, so it still reading the autorun. I even changed the NoDriveTypeAutoRun key in the registry to «ff».

I would like to take control back of my PC.

Click the Start and Input «gpedit.msc» in search box, then click the result to open the gpedit.

Expand Administrative Templates >Windows Components > Autoplay Policies in order.Then double click «Turn off Autoplay»

Click Enabled, and then select All drives so that you can disable Autorun on all drives.Click Ok at last.

After restarting your computer, you have done all the needed work to disable Auto Play in Windows 7.

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Autoplay and Autorun are two different features of Windows. Disabling Autoplay from Control Panel and making changes in Registry to set NoDriveTypeAutoRun key to FF does not change the Autorun behavior.

If windows perform any task automatically when you connect the external hard drive then we can say that Autoplay is enabled.

If nothing happens and only the Icon changes in windows explorer then Autoplay is disabled, we cannot stop windows from changing the icon because the behaviour is by design.

Please check the link below that discusses about Autoplay and Autorun,

Hope this information helped you!

Yaaser — Microsoft Support Engineer
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Enabling and Disabling AutoRun

There are many situations where AutoRun may need to be temporarily or persistently disabled. For example, AutoRun might interfere with the operation of a running application and need to be disabled for the duration. The system provides several ways to disable AutoRun.

Suppressing AutoRun Programmatically

There are a variety of situations where AutoRun may need to be suppressed programmatically. Two examples are:

• Your application has a setup program that requires the user to insert another disc that may contain an Autorun.inf file.
• During the operation of your application, the user may need to insert another disc that may contain an Autorun.inf file.

In either case, you will normally not want to launch another application while the original is in progress.

Users can manually suppress AutoRun by holding down the SHIFT key when they insert the CD-ROM. However, it is usually preferable to handle this operation programmatically rather than depending on the user.

With systems that have Shell version 4.70 and later, Windows sends a «QueryCancelAutoPlay» message to the foreground window. Your application can respond to this message to suppress AutoRun. This approach is used by system utilities such as the Open common dialog box to disable AutoRun.

The following code fragments illustrate how to set up and handle this message. Your application must be running in the foreground window. First, register «QueryCancelAutoPlay» as a Windows message:

Your application’s window must be in the foreground to receive this message. The message handler should return TRUE to cancel AutoRun and FALSE to enable it. The following code fragment illustrates how to use this message to disable AutoRun.

If your application is using a dialog box and needs to respond to a «QueryCancelAutoPlay» message, it cannot simply return TRUE or FALSE. Instead, call SetWindowLong with nIndex set to DWL_MSGRESULT. Set the dwNewLong parameter to TRUE to cancel AutoRun, and FALSE to enable it. For example, the following sample dialog box procedure cancels AutoRun when it receives a «QueryCancelAutoPlay» message.

Using the Registry to Disable AutoRun

There are two registry values that can be used to persistently disable AutoRun: NoDriveAutoRun and NoDriveTypeAutoRun. The first value disables AutoRun for specified drive letters and the second disables AutoRun for a class of drives. If either of these values is set to disable AutoRun for a particular device, it will be disabled. See the Knowledge Base article How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows for more information on disabling AutoRun functionality. This article lists the different updates that you must have installed to correctly disable the Autorun functionality.

The NoDriveAutoRun and NoDriveTypeAutoRun values should only be modified by system administrators to change the value for the entire system for testing or administrative purposes. Applications should not modify these values, as there is no way to reliably restore them to their original values.

The NoDriveAutoRun value disables AutoRun for specified drive letters. It is a REG_DWORD data value, found under the following key:

The first bit of the value corresponds to drive A:, the second to B:, and so on. To disable AutoRun for one or more drive letters, set the corresponding bits. For example, to disable the A: and C: drives, set NoDriveAutoRun to 0x00000005 .

The NoDriveTypeAutoRun value disables AutoRun for a class of drives. It is a REG_DWORD or 4-byte REG_BINARY data value, found under the same key.

By setting the bits of this value’s first byte, different drives can be excluded from working with AutoRun.

The following table gives the bits and bitmask constants, that can be set in the first byte of NoDriveTypeAutoRun to disable AutoRun for a particular drive type. You must restart Windows Explorer before the changes take effect.

Bit Number	Bitmask Constant	Description
0x04	DRIVE_REMOVEABLE	Disk can be removed from drive (such as a floppy disk).
0x08	DRIVE_FIXED	Disk cannot be removed from drive (a hard disk).
0x10	DRIVE_REMOTE	Network drive.
0x20	DRIVE_CDROM	CD-ROM drive.
0x40	DRIVE_RAMDISK	RAM disk.

AutoRun for Other Types of Storage Media

AutoRun is primarily intended for public distribution of applications on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, and its use is discouraged for other storage media. However, it is often useful to enable AutoRun on other types of removable storage media. This feature is typically used simplify the debugging of AutoRun.inf files. AutoRun only works on removable storage devices when the following criteria are met:

• The device must have AutoRun-compatible drivers. To be AutoRun-compatible, a driver must notify the system that a disk has been inserted by sending a WM_DEVICECHANGE message.
• The root directory of the inserted media must contain an Autorun.inf file.
• The device must not have AutoRun disabled through the registry.
• The foreground application has not suppressed AutoRun.

This feature should not be used to distribute applications on removable media. Because implementing AutoRun on removable media provides an easy way to spread computer viruses, users should be suspicious of any publicly distributed floppy disk that contains an Autorun.inf file.

Normally, AutoRun starts automatically, but it can also be started manually. If the device meets the criteria listed above, the drive letter’s shortcut menu will include an AutoPlay command. To run AutoRun manually, either right-click the drive icon and select AutoPlay from the shortcut menu or double-click the drive icon. If the drivers are not AutoRun-compatible, the shortcut menu will not have an AutoPlay item and AutoRun cannot be started.

How to enable or disable AutoPlay in Windows 10

In this post, we will see how to disable AutoPlay in Windows using the Control Panel, Group Policy, or the Registry Editor. But before that, let us see what is AutoPlay and AutoRun in Windows. Then we will see how to enable or disable AutoPlay or AutoRun in Windows 10/8.

Difference between AutoPlay & Autorun

Autorun is used to start some programs or enhanced media content automatically when you insert a CD, DVD, or another media type into your computer. This is different from AutoPlay, but the result is often the same: when inserted, the CD starts automatically, using a particular program.

AutoPlay lets you choose which program to use to start different kinds of media, such as DVD, CD, etc, containing music, video, photo, etc. For example, the first time you try to play a music CD, AutoPlay will ask you which media player you want to use if you have more than one installed on your computer. You can read more here about AutoPlay in Windows. Autorun is incorporated into the media types that use it, and you can’t modify it. When you try to play a CD that uses autorun, AutoPlay asks you to choose an action to perform -to play the autorun content or to skip it. AutoPlay lets you choose an action, and it is in a way, the successor to AutoRun.

In order to help prevent malware from spreading using the AutoRun mechanism, Microsoft made an important change, starting with Windows 7. AutoPlay no longer supports the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay still works for CD/DVDs but not for work for USB drives.

AutoPlay in Windows 10/8

When you connect devices to your Windows computer, the AutoPlay feature starts running automatically and begins playing media such as music, images, and videos. For example, the first time you try to play a music CD, AutoPlay asks which media player you want to use if you have more than one installed on your computer. Although good, some of you may want to disable the feature.

Disable AutoPlay in Windows 10

Here’s how you can disable AutoPlay in Windows 10/8/7.

1] Control Panel

Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\AutoPlay and set the options as per your preferences.

2] Using Group Policy

Type gpedit.msc in the Run box, and then press ENTER to open the Group Policy Editor. Under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Click Autoplay Policies.

In the RHS Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay to open the Properties box.

This policy setting allows you to turn off the Autoplay feature. Autoplay begins reading from a drive as soon as you insert media in the drive. As a result, the setup file of programs and the music on audio media start immediately. Prior to Windows XP SP2, Autoplay is disabled by default on removable drives, such as the floppy disk drive (but not the CD-ROM drive), and on network drives. Starting with Windows XP SP2, Autoplay is enabled for removable drives as well, including Zip drives and some USB mass storage devices. If you enable this policy setting, Autoplay is disabled on CD-ROM and removable media drives, or disabled on all drives. This policy setting disables Autoplay on additional types of drives. You cannot use this setting to enable Autoplay on drives on which it is disabled by default. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, AutoPlay is enabled.

Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay on box to disable Autorun on all drives.

Restart your computer.

3] Registry Editor

The same can also be achieved by editing the Registry. Run regedit and navigate to

In the RHS, you will see dword NoDriveTypeAutoRun. You will see the default value 60 or 3C. Right-click on it and give it a decimal value 255 (or Hexadecimal value 000000FF). Exit regedit. Reboot. This will disable AutoRun on all drives.

You can also download and use our Ultimate Windows Tweaker to disable AutoPlay. Alternatively, you can download Microsoft Fix it 50471 to disable Autorun and Microsoft Fix it 50475 to enable Autorun. Microsoft has released a hotfix for Windows Vista to restrict AutoRun entries in the AutoPlay dialog to only CD and DVD drives. Windows Vista users may want to see if they have it installed on their PC.

Date: September 20, 2019 Tags: Features, Tips

How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows

Support for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) ends on July 12, 2011. To continue receiving security updates for Windows, make sure you’re running Windows Vista with Service Pack 2 (SP2). For more information, refer to this Microsoft web page: Support is ending for some versions of Windows.

Summary

The updates that this article describes fix a problem with the disable Autorun feature. Without these updates, Autorun for a network drive cannot be disabled. Also, the shortcut menu and double-click functionality of Autorun were not disabled even if the steps that were previously provided were followed. This problem is fixed by the updates described in this article. The updates were distributed to the following systems through the Windows Update and Automatic update distribution channels:

Microsoft Windows 2000

Windows XP Service Pack 2

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2

This article also contains links to download locations where users can obtain these updates.

More Information

Depending on the version of Windows that you are using, there are different updates that you must have installed to correctly disable the Autorun functionality:

To disable the Autorun functionality in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008, you must have security update 950582 installed (security bulletin MS08-038).

To disable the Autorun functionality in Windows XP, in Windows Server 2003, or in Windows 2000, you must have security update 950582, update 967715, or update 953252 installed.

Note Updates 950582, 967715, and 953252 provide the same functionality for Autorun. Update 953252 was repackaged as security update 950582 to provide an additional security update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

The following table shows the differences in the three updates:

Security update 950582

Applicable operating systems

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000

Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000

Contains security updates

Provides the Autorun functionality

Windows Update, Automatic Updates, and Download Center

Windows Update, Automatic Updates, and Download Center

Packages built by using Microsoft Knowledge Base article 950582

Packages built by using Microsoft Knowledge Base article 950582

Packages built by using Microsoft Knowledge Base article 967715

After the prerequisite updates are installed, you can use the procedures in any of the following sections to disable Autorun features:

How to use Group Policy settings to disable all Autorun features

How to selectively disable specific Autorun features

How to set the HonorAutorunSetting registry key manually

The purpose of Autorun

The main purpose of Autorun is to provide a software response to hardware actions that you start on a computer. Autorun has the following features:

These features are typically called from removable media or from network shares. During AutoPlay, the Autorun.inf file from the media is parsed. This file specifies which commands the system runs. Many companies use this functionality to start their installers.

Default Behavior of Autorun and AutoPlay

Default behavior of AutoPlay on Windows XP-based systems

AutoPlay begins reading from a drive as soon as you insert media into the drive. Therefore, the Setup file of programs and the music on audio media start immediately. Before Windows XP SP2, AutoPlay was disabled by default on removable drives, such as the floppy disk drive (but not the CD drive), and on network drives. Starting with Windows XP SP2, AutoPlay is enabled for removable drives. This includes ZIP drives and some USB mass storage devices. If you enable the settings to disable AutoPlay (the procedure to do this is described in this article), you can disable AutoPlay on a CD drive, on removable media drives, on all drives.

Note This setting appears in both the Computer Configuration and User Configuration folders. If the settings conflict, the setting in Computer Configuration takes precedence over the setting in User Configuration.

Default behavior for Autorun

Autorun commands are generally stored in Autorun.inf files. These commands enable applications to start, start installation programs, or start other routines. In versions of Windows that are earlier than Windows Vista, when media that contains an Autorun command is inserted, the system automatically executes the program without requiring user intervention. Because code may be executed without user’s knowledge or consent, users may want to disable this feature because of security concerns. The configuration settings that are described in this article give Administrators the ability to selectively or completely disable all Autorun capabilities for systems that run Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 systems.

The default behavior in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is to prompt the user whether an Autorun command is to be run. Changes to these settings are described later in this article. An Administrator can completely disable Autorun commands or revert to the pre-Windows Vista behavior of automatically executing the Autorun command. If the feature is configured to disable Autorun capabilities, or if this policy is not configured, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 will continue to prompt the user whether the Autorun command is to be run.

Prerequisites to disable Autorun capabilities

To disable Autorun capabilities, you must install the following updates:

Update for Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based Systems (KB967715)

Update for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB967715)

Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB967715)

Update for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB967715)

Windows Vista-based and Windows Server 2008-based systems must have update 950582 (Security bulletin MS08-038) installed to take advantage of the registry key settings that disable Autorun.

After the prerequisites are installed, follow these steps to disable Autorun.

How to use Group Policy settings to disable all Autorun features in Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista

Use either of the following methods:

Click Start, type Gpedit.msc in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Autoplay Policies.

In the Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay.

Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.

Restart the computer.

Click Start, type Gpedit.msc in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.

If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Autoplay Policies.

In the Details pane, double-click Default Behavior for AutoRun.

Click Enabled, and then select Do not execute any autorun commands in the Default Autorun behavior box to disable Autorun on all drives.

Restart the computer.

How to use Group Policy settings to disable all Autorun features in Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, and Windows 2000

Click Start, click Run, type Gpedit.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.

Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.

In the Settings pane, right-click Turn off Autoplay, and then click Properties.

Note In Windows 2000, the policy setting is named Disable Autoplay.

Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.

Click OK to close the Turn off Autoplay Properties dialog box.

Restart the computer.

How to disable or enable all Autorun features in Windows 7 and other operating systems

Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP

ImportantThis section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
To disable Autorun yourself on operating systems that do not include Gpedit.msc, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.

Locate and then click the following entry in the registry:

Right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun, and then click Modify.

In the Value data box, type 0xFF to disable all types of drives. Or, to selectively disable specific drives, use a different value as described in the «How to selectively disable specific Autorun features» section.

Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.

Restart the computer.

How to selectively disable specific Autorun features

To selectively disable specific Autorun features, you must change the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry in one of the following registry key subkeys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\
The following table shows the settings for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry entry.

Disables AutoRun on drives of unknown type

Disables AutoRun on removable drives

Disables AutoRun on fixed drives

Disables AutoRun on network drives

Disables AutoRun on CD-ROM drives

Disables AutoRun on RAM disks

Disables AutoRun on all kinds of drives

The value of the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry entry determines which drive or drives the Autorun functionality will be disabled for. For example, if you want to disable Autorun for network drives only, you must set the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry entry to 0x10.

If you want to disable Autorun for multiple drives, you must add the corresponding hexadecimal values to the 0x10 value. For example, if you want to disable Autorun for removable drives and for network drives, you must add 0x4 and 0x10, which is the mathematical addition of 2 hexadecimal values, to determine the value to use. 0x4 + 0x10 = 0x14. Therefore, in this example, you would set the value of the NoDriveTypeAutoRun entry to 0x14.

The default value for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry entry varies for different Windows-based operating systems. These default values are listed in the following table.

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Windows Server 2003

Registry entry that is used to control the behavior of the current update

All the fixes in the current update for Windows XP and for Windows Server 2003 are included in the HonorAutorunSetting registry entry in the following subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\ Registry Value

Note For Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, all changes of this update are controlled by the HonorAutorunSetting registry entry so that you can revert to the previous configuration if it is required. This entry is not valid for Windows 2000, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008 users.

When you install update 967715, the HonorAutorunSetting registry key is created only in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive. The registry key has a default value of 0x1. This value enables the functionality that is present in the current update. Before you install the current update, this registry key is not present in the system. You can obtain prepackage installation Autorun behavior by manually setting the registry key to 0. To do this, type 0 instead of
1 in step 6 of the following procedures to manually set the registry key. HonorAutorunSetting is always read from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry hive even if the HonorAutorunSetting entry is also configured in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry hive.

How to set the HonorAutorunSetting registry key

Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

Right-click in the right side pane, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

Type HonorAutorunSetting, and then press ENTER.

In the Value data box, type 1, click Hexadecimal if it is not already selected, and then click OK.

Exit Registry Editor.

Restart the system for the new settings to take effect.

How to prevent Autorun.inf files from being created on shares

To prevent the Autorun feature from being invoked, and to keep any programs from writing Autoun.inf files to mapped network drives, follow these steps:

Delete any Autorun.inf files from the root of a mapped network drive.

Do not give anyone Create rights to the root of a mapped network drive.

Note After you implement this procedure, Autorun features will not be available from network drives.

How to prevent users from connecting to USB storage devices

The following Microsoft Knowledge Base article contains two methods to prevent users from connecting to a USB storage device:

823732 How can I prevent users from connecting to a USB storage device?
Note After you implement one of these procedures on a system, USB storage devices no longer function on the system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this update change my current Autorun settings?

No. The update does not change the current Autorun settings on your system. Instead, the update lets users correctly enforce Autorun settings.

Is there a change in user experience after this update is installed?

After you install update 967715, you might notice that Autorun features for network drives no longer function. This is because, by default, Autorun on network drives is set to disabled in the registry. After you install the update, a registry key that was already set to disable Autorun on network drives is enforced correctly. This is the only functionality that will change after the update is installed. If a user had disabled Autorun for other drives before the update, they may notice a change in the double-click and contextual menu behavior after the update.

Is this a security vulnerability that requires Microsoft to issue a security update?

No. Disabling the Autorun feature is an optional configuration that some customers may decide to deploy. Update 967715 only resolves the issue with Autorun functionality.

Why am I being redirected to update 967715 when I was looking for update 953252?

Update 953252 and update 967715 offer the same updates. Only the delivery channels for these were different. Update 953252 was released only for Download Center while update 967715 was released for Windows Update, for Automatic Updates, and for the Download Center. To avoid duplication of the same information, you are being redirected to update 967715, which has all the latest information about these updates.

If I have update 950582 or update 953252 installed on my computer, will I be reoffered update 967715?

No, update 967715 is the same update that was released as update 953252 but was packaged under update 950582. Therefore, if Add or Remove Programs shows that update 950582 or update 953252 is installed, you do not require update 967715, and it will not be offered by Windows Update or Automatic Updates.

Do these updates disable Autorun capabilities?

No. The updates that are offered correctly respect the registry key values that disable Autorun capabilities. These updates do not change the registry key values and will continue to respect values that were already set before these updates were installed. If the registry values were not set before you install these updates, then the registry key settings will have to be set appropriately in order to disable Autorun capabilities.

Where are the updates for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008?

Updates for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were released together with some security updates in security update 950582 (security bulletin MS08-038). In order to take advantage of the registry key settings that disable Autorun, customers who are running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008-based systems must install security update 950582.

Known issues with this security update

Update 967715 is reoffered multiple times

Update 967715 may be reoffered if the HonorAutorunSetting registry setting that is described in this article is not added to the registry hive. This issue may occur if some other program that is installed on the computer blocks the update from writing the registry entry. Such software may block the update during the installation of the update or may remove the registry entry after the computer is restarted.

To resolve this problem, install the update in safe mode. To do this, follow these steps:

Download the update. To do this, follow these steps:

Visit the Microsoft Download Web site:

In the Search for a download box, type the number of the Knowledge Base article that describes the update, and then click Go.

Download the update, and then save it to the desktop.

Install the update. To do this, follow these steps:

Double-click the downloaded file to install it.

If you are prompted to restart the computer, do so.

Visit the Windows Update or Microsoft Update Web site to determine whether the update is offered again. If you are offered the update again, continue to the next step.

Install the update in safe mode. Safe mode disables most running processes and services. These services include the Windows Update service. Installing an update in safe mode is a quick test to determine whether an application or process is interfering with the installation. To install the update in safe mode, follow these steps:

Restart the computer.

As the computer starts, press the F8 key.

Use the arrow keys to select Safe Mode, and then press ENTER.

Double-click the file that you downloaded in step 1 to install the file.

When the installation is complete, restart the computer.

Visit the Windows Update or Microsoft Update Web site to determine whether the update is offered. Or, wait until Automatic Updates runs again.

FILE INFORMATION

The English (United States) version of this software update installs files that have the attributes that are listed in the following tables. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The dates and times for these files on your local computer are displayed in your local time and with your current daylight saving time (DST) bias. Additionally, the dates and times may change when you perform certain operations on the files.