Disable CD AutoPlay

Placing a CD in the tray and inserting it causes annoying, CPU cycle eating, and scary things to happen. Low end budget PCs have been known to grind to a halt as XP happily tries to provide you with an easier way to pick what happens when a CD is inserted. This is, in my opinion, a great idea just poorly implemented. When coupled with an active virus scanner that's trying to check the files as they're scanned it can take even some of my larger systems a few minutes for them to load.

Fortunately, this can be remedied easily. The methods vary but aren't that advanced.

 Before attempting the following make sure you read and understand Registry Editing Warning.

Windows XP^® Home Edition:

1. Click Start button
2. Click Run...
3. Type regedit
4. Click OK
5. Dig down to the following key and open it:
   
   



6. Click Edit (at the top)
7. Click New > DWORD Value
8. Name it "NoDriveTypeAutoRun"
9. Double click the new key entered and give it a value of "0x000000b1" without the quotes
10. Click OK

The new key should have "(177)" listed with it, and appear thus:

This should require rebooting to take effect though you may be able to get away with logging off and back on again. I'd just reboot.

Windows XP^® Professional Edition:

1. Press the Start button
2. Click on Run
3. Type "gpedit.msc" without the quotes and press Enter
4. Open Computer Configuration
5. Open Administrative Templates
6. Open the System sub-menu
7. Open "Turn Autoplay Off"

It should be set as not configured. Just go ahead and turn it on by setting it to enable. I don't think that this requires rebooting but you should just to make sure.

OS: XP > General
Date: 06/08/05

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