Disable Autoplay of Audio CDs and USB Drives
I find it very annoying when I go home from work and plug my laptop into my external hard drive… The autoplay window always pops up and asks me what I want to do with the files, which may be fine the first time, but definitely isn't after a year of that.
To get to the configuration screen for this setting, go to Start Menu \ Run and type in:
gpedit.msc
You will see the Group Policy window. You should select Administrative Templates \ System in the tree view:
You will see an item in the right side pane called "Turn off Autoplay"
Double click the item, and set the radio button to Enabled, and change the "Turn off Autoplay on" to All Drives.
Now you should be safe from the autoplay monster.
The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 11/11/06 and tagged with: Windows, Customizing: Tips & Tweaks
Thank you very much! It has been irritating me over a year how Windows ignores my preference to not AutoPlay under the Drive Properties…
hey this thing is totally right but in my computer i didnt find any file of this name gpedit.msc i search everywhere but i dont have this file in my computer soo would you like too help with any other solutions bye waiting for your keen response
I have the opposite problem.- I liked that autoplay- it's gone and I want to restore it!
..until recently my autoplay worked so that whenever I inserted my Sandisk the window would appear asking me what I wanted to do…..I really liked that feature and now it's disappeared (I think after I did a tune-up offered by Dell). Any advice about restoring it?
Hi guys!Pleazzzz help me out here!I have a similar prob.When I double-click on my external usb drive(250giga)an open with dialog pops up but the option for choosing a programme are deactivated(grey).If I right click on the drive and click open or explore it will open allright,but what about the double click.I should also mention that this is a prob that persists.I have noticed that the only way to get rid of it is by formatting the disc.I found that out because this prob infected my other drives (the 2 internal partitions I have and a usb stick).The most remarkable is that when I plugged the stick into another pc,the prob was still there,even for the other pc.(Not for its internal drives,of the second PC I mean.)To sum up,now I have formatted the 2 internal drives of the first PC and the usb stick,and they are just fine right now,but the external 250 giga drive is still a prob.Please suggest any solution apart from formatting!I 'm trying to avoid that…Thx in advance!
P.S.:Please respond as soon as possible!
Okay, guys, this is driving me nuts. I used to put audio CDs in and explorer gave me each track's file size and I could drag the files to my hard drive. Suddenly, every track is 1kb and won't copy, explorer just makes a shortcut. help?
This doesn't seem to work on XP Home edition (there's no gpedit). Is there a registry value you can change or something instead?
gpedit.msc is one of the features of XP Pro; it does not exist in XP Home.
For Windows XP Home, try TweakUI from Microsoft instead; it can be downloaded at http://download.microsoft.com/.....ySetup.exe
Thanks John. I did indeed try TweakUI, and it worked really well. It should come with Windows, IMO.
YOU RULE!! I've been trying to turn AUTOPLAY off on my external drives for months. Many thanks!
well i want that how can i disable my other removable devices such as the 'c' derive or 'd' derive of hard disk.because when i double cliclk on the 'c' derive it does not open it then i right click on the same derive and then click open it.and there is an option comes out whn i click any of ma hard derive the option is 'auto play' why it is appear whn i right on the any derive.plz plz help me out em waitin…..of ur response.tc
hi,
When iam right click on any hard disk partition it's shown Autoplay command in Menu. normally it will show Open Command as first command.
means double click on parition it's go to open a new window .
how to fix this problem please give me reply
Thanking you
i was affected by one of the virus name PET.32 and it was get rid off. Now, i have a problem that the time when i open my harddisk, it appears that " Windows cannot find pet32.exe. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click search".. Can anyone have anyways to help me solve this problem pls..????
Hi,
i'm having the same problem. I have 3 drives in my pc (c, d, e ). When i right click on my c: drive the default is open but on my d & e drive it is auto. All 3 drive are physical hard drives. i've tried "regsvr32 /i shell32.dll" as well as
Go to the the registry editor:
under the key
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2
delete all sub keys which have similar structure like:
Shell\Auto
Shell\Auto\command with value = C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\RunDLL32.EXE Shell32.DLL,ShellExec_RunDLL infrom.exe
Shell\AutoRun
Shel\AutoPlay
i do not find the subkeys on my pc but if i delete the "mountpoint2″ completely then the defaults are correct. only problem is when i reboot it puts the registry key back and the same problem.
i have updated my virus package and checked for viruses, none found. my c: drive have been formatted and re-installed.
You are the king !!!
Thanks a lot this worked brilliantly
hey its not working on d drive and e drive, so it would be good of u if u provide anyother trick to turnout autoplay off
i have a problem.when i open add/remove programe then it shows all the programe but some of them i can't delete.some are deleteable.plz give me solution.
Thank you so much for your article. I have been searching for a while to find the instruction on how to turn off the auto run pop-up but could not find it. I am glad you helped.
thank u sooooooo much
I have been hunting around for a solution to a similar problem. I have for some unknown reason lost the autoplay on my CD/DVD drive and also when I put a USB drive in it used to pop up with an option to open, play etc. Now this does not happen. I have checked the registry and autoplay is switched on, I have checked it is enabled on every drive and also tried TweakUI but that says it is set to auotun?? I seem to be going round in circles with no luck. I have XP Home with SP2 installed any one that can help me I would be eternally grateful
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i want to have the USB autoplay on since i had it before and then lost it. bythe way the windows operating system is XP professional.
i have the same prob. how can i disable my other removable devices such as the 'c' derive or 'd' derive of hard disk.because when i double cliclk on the 'c' derive it does not open it then i right click on the same derive and then click open it.and there is an option comes out whn i click any of ma hard derive the option is 'auto play' why it is appear whn i right on the any derive.plz plz help me
…..of ur response.tc
anyone pls help me with this
i had an external hard disk but had some problemwith it
and now the system is not recognizing it
as soon as i plug it to the system it shows a msg of unknown device
it has a lot of important information in it
someone please help me
i have to get the entire stuff of the hard disk back
Can't believe I forgot about Tweak UI from Microsoft. The icon is right on my desktop. It worked like a champ to turn off the Autoplay feature on my external hard drive.
Thanks John
Many thanks for your help!
Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eric on October 9, 2007 5:09 pm
I can only second this
Hey, to all that still have problem with drives D, E, …
Delete the file autorun.inf from the drive and restart windows.
:))
gpedit.msc does not exist in my Windows XP SP2.
cant find gpedit.msc
Help! i have vista ultimate 32 bit, and i can find and open the gpe, and i can find and open system under administrative templates. I have many items listed, but none have anything to do with autoplay. where is it??
When I use duble click it dose not working and it infected in all partions in my pc , Iam using winxp sp2 .. plz any one help me .. I have this problem in our network and I have 25 pc have same problem ..
Thanx
Haytham
If some kind of virus have changed the default action of your hard drive to AutoPlay
open regedit.exe and find this key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2
go trough all CLSID's (those garbish alphanumeric keys)
then check all Shell subkeys and change the Default value/Data to "Open" and/or remove all the autoplay subkeys
if you want to save the autoplay option to certain drives (e.g. CD/DVD drives) simply do all the above 1 step at a time and constantly check what is changed in Explorer (these registry changes work instantly). It is hard to find which CLSID corresponds to a certain drive, thus after changing the "shell value" you need to right-click the drive in explorer and see if the AutoPlay or Open is set as the default(bold) action.
And next time use antivirus
dont delete mount point2 just right click on dat and click on premisions and then click on restricted:d
here u go
OK. All I did to turn this off is Open MyComputer, right click on the CD player, Click on Open AutoPlay. At the bottom (of the window not the list) is a link that says 'Set Autoplay defaults in control panel'; click that link and set your preferences. Simple!!!
This didn't work for me, the run command didn't work, however properties of the drive, autoplay tab - then selecting don't do anything for every possible media option did the trick.
i have tryed this but it cant find gpedit.msc, is there anouther way of doing this
Thanks a lot…I was fiddling with registry for this before…Thanks again…
I have problem with hard disk, It is not open when I double click. It says choos aprogram……..to open.
You can also turn off autoplay feature for USB drives by editing Windows Registry:
1. Find key HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Policies | Explorer
2. Create new entry to turn off autoplay function by right click Edit | New | Dword Value then name it NoSaveSettings
3. Find an entry NoDriveTypeAutorun with a Dword value 91 and give a Dword value 95
4. Restart your PC
Hi i have the exact opposite of this problem, autoplay does not come on when i plug my usb stick in my computer and i want it to come on. Any ideas?
cheers
Gotta love the silly virus. If you have the silly virus, disable auto play, get rid of the virus on your computer, and delete the files off your external or thumb drive. To delete the files off you thumb drive; open my computer, click tools>folder options. On the view tab, uncheck hide protected operating system files. eject and re-attach your external. It should open normally now and you will see a autorun.inf and a boot.exe or ah.exe. delete these files and you are rid of the silly virus. you external is not protected if you plug it into another computer but it will not transfer back onto yours so just delete the files when you see them.
what a solution. we were formatting pc till date for this problem. thanks a lot
hi, it took me only a minute to solve this problem the way you have shown.thanks a lot