Autorun.inf is useless in Windows XP, Vista, and 7

This is a note to USB Developers: It appears that the autorun.inf file is useless in computers running Win XP SP3 or higher. Recent Microsoft updates have kept the autoplay feature, but disabled the autorun feature in XP SP3 and Vista. It is also set this way by default in Windows 7.

If the user is motivated to do so, there are work-arounds. However, promotional USB developers must keep this in mind as a statistically large portion of users will no longer be able to use their USB drives as effectively.

I am putting this here so that it may save you time trying to find a solution when this happens to you.

I will also update this blog if I find a valid solution other than ensuring the root directory of your USB only contains a file that say CLICKME.

Hope this helps.

This was originally posted on my tech blog Priceless Geek.

 

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Read Users' Comments (2)

2 Response to "Autorun.inf is useless in Windows XP, Vista, and 7"

  1. Beavmetal says:
    11:19 AM

    The MS KB article that informs us about this is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971029

  2. Unknown says:
    11:24 AM

    The link to the Microsoft article that explains this is here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971029