disable autorun in XP (but not autoplay)

[davexnet]

Hi all -
according to this article http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/autorun-vs-autoplay/

Autorun is what occurs when you put in a CD, such as the XP retail install disk and the Setup programs starts by itself.
Autoplay is when you insert an audio CD, and it asks you if you want to use WMP or VLC to play it, etc,etc.

This makes sense to me. What I would like to do it disable the autorun functionality so that executables don't run
by themselves, but leave the autoplay mechansim in place and working. To me, it seems a reasonable request,
but so far I've not found out how to do it...

Any insight appreciated.

[hello_hello]

I use TweakUI to disable AutoPlay as I hate it with a passion. But anyway.... after reading the instructions in the link below and checking the appropriate registry entry, it seems AutoRun was already disabled for this PC, maybe as a result of disabling that annoying "feature" called AutoPlay, but it also seems AutoRun can be disabled independently (at least that's the way I read it) while leaving AutoPlay active and continuing to treat you like a two year old with a learning disability.

Did I mention my dislike of AutoPlay.

How to disable the Autorun functionality in Windows

The article mentions a Windows update (or two) which needs to be installed for AutoRun to be disabled. I'd be willing to bet though, if you already have the "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" registry entry the article refers to, you'd already have the necessary updates installed. I'd imagine after changing the registry entry a reboot would be required.
Please report back as to whether it works.

[davexnet]

Appreciate your response. I thought the two mechanisms were independant. For example,
if you stop the service Shell Hardware Detection, or shsvcs.dll is unregistered for some reason,
if you insert an audio CD, instead of getting a menu from which to select an application to play the audio CD,
all you get is an explorer-type Window showing track001,cda, track002.cda , or video_ts and audio_ts if you insert
a DVD.

However, in this state, if you insert a Windows XP setup disk, the setup program (pointed to by autorun.inf) starts
to run by itself. So this mechanism is separate from the Shell Hardware Detection mentioned above.

I would like to inhibit the autorun.inf action, but still get the "menu" of choices when you insert a Audio CD or DVD.

The registry entries you mention, as far as I can see, stop both of the above mechanisms.
Am I misunderstanding something about the way these two things work and relate to each other?

EDIT I may be out of luck, according to some more info on wikipedia, Windows XP always invokes autorun
before autoplay if an autorun.inf is found. The functionality I'm looking for (apparently)
was added to Vista and newer. In these newer OS's, the autorun action is added as an item to
the autoplay menu.

You might have thought there would have been a registry hack to at least disable autorun but allow autoplay
to proceed, but apparently not.

[nic2k4]

Maybe AutoRun Settings V1.3 at the end of the page would do what you want, but the little blurb about a US-CERT suggestion seems to be what you're asking for; it refers in part to the same KB hello_hello linked to.

[davexnet]

Thanks for the extra info, I'll investigate this.

Kudos for finding this, the registry mod on the US-Cert website does indeed give the desired
results. I just don't understand why MS couldn't provide this functionality themselves.

Appreciated!
Dave