Windows XP/Vista contains a feature which automatically runs the software on a CD or DVD loaded into an optical drive on your computer.Similarly the audio CD player pops up whenever you insert an audio CD and starts playing it immediately. This is designed as a convenience, but can have the unintended consequence of loading or executing programs on your PC without your permission. What’s worse, is that if you double-click on the your CD or DVD icon in My Computer, the autorun fires up, instead of a folder window as you’d expect.Holding down the SHIFT key while inserting the CD works for some people.
It is safest to disable CD autoplay in Windows Vista or in XP using either local group policy or, for an enterprise, an Active Directory group policy.For this do the following:
- Click on Windows Vista/XP Start
- Click Run
- Enter GPEDIT.MSC
- Group Policy Editor window will popup. On left panel:
- Double-click Computer Configuration to open submenu
- Double-click Administrative Templates to open submenu
- Double-click System to open submenu
- Double-click Turn autoplay off option which will be near the bottom of the list in the right panel.
Tip:For a simple “one-time” disable of autorun on a Windows PC, hold down the shift key as you insert a disc into the PC. This will disable autorun for this instance only. Open My Computer, hold down the shift key as you insert the disc, watch for the icon to appear in the window, and wait for the drive to spin down.
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