Comments on: Enabling autorun for a USB flash drive.

By: MRG

MRG — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 00:07:26 +0000

I was referring to a USB flashdrive in the previous post.
MRGCAV@Gmail.com

By: MRG

MRG — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 23:48:50 +0000

I have Windows Vista and Windows XP Machines.
I have tried several times.
Here is my Autorun INF file.
[autorun]
OPEN=Q:
ICON=\Icon\Flashdrive.ico
ACTION=USB Flashdrive

IT does not work.

I want to:
1. Display my drive icon in “my computer”. (Flashdrive.ico)
2 To have the drive open up. (displaying the flashdrive’s contents)
3. To open the Autoplay dialog box.

I am no programmer. Can anyone help me write this Autorun.inf file ?

mrgcav@gmail.com

By: rene

rene — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:11:35 +0000

Hi Scott. I happened upon your post like a year after you’d made it! Hope I can still get a little help…
I got your suggestion to work just fine, but the autoplay pop-up only displays the very first program option (I placed multiple options following your “action” then “open” code lines but nothing displays past the first option).
Can you suggest anything more?
Thanks a lot! – Rene

By: Jozz

Jozz — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 03:34:48 +0000

Bob,
You will find it should work if you write the file paths like so:

[autorun]
action=Start ThunderbirdPortable
icon=”ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe”
open=”ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe”
label=Portable Internet

I was having the same problem and this worked a treat.

By: shisho

shisho — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:09:05 +0000

how can i autorun a batch file without the dialog box of windows. simple insert and autorun and thats it ?? any one knows how this can be done? i have the inf file the batch but i wan the computer to automaticaly run the batch without prompting the user to open files cancel or run , just running the batch file thanks

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 03:07:04 +0000

I’m not sure, I’ve never gotten that error when using autorun.inf. Some simple things to check.
1) Is the write-protect tab set on the USB drive?
2) If you don’t control the machine, does the admin have access to USB devices turned off?
3) Are any of the files that thunderbird uses or writes to set to read-only?

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:42:14 +0000

Great stuff! You solved the exact problem I was trying to solve — how to launch the portable apps (TB, FF, etc.) from a thumbdrive.

Sadly, it doesn’t work for me though. When I try to launch my app from the autoplay menu I get an “access is denied, E:\” error. Since it’s parsing the autorun.inf and displaying the action, icon and label correctly I can’t fathom what it’s complaining about. Any ideas?

[autorun]
action=Start ThunderbirdPortable
icon=\ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe
open=\ThunderbirdPortable\ThunderbirdPortable.exe
label=Portable Internet

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 01:21:28 +0000

I’m never 100% sure, but I believe the way the U3 USB devices get around this is by reporting themselves as a CD Device, in which case AutoPlay is ignored and the autorun.inf is executed.

There are is a registry key that allows you to define handlers for specific USB devices ( they allow you to specify the USB device ID), but that requires at least enough security to edit the registry.

I couldn’t find anything on changing the return drive type fof the USB drive without changing the registry. I found this site that explains the drive type enums and how they relate to the autorun functionality a little better than I did though.
http://www.ashzfall.com/products/autorun/autorunfloppy.html

By: H4xsDn13d

H4xsDn13d — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:29:40 +0000

That’s some cool info, but are you 100% sure that you can’t run an autorun.inf off a USB drive? I’ve heard there’s a windows component that returns a value of DRIVE_FIXED that prevents windows from searching for a autorun file. Is there a way to change the return value of the function with just the USB drive( no previous PC modifications required)?

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 15:22:17 +0000

Alex,

I’m not sure. That theme appears to have left my system? I’m pretty sure I got it at deviantart.com.