Protect your computer from viruses by disabling autorun autoplay on all the drives

Trouble:

We have been getting lots of virus problems which infect computers through autorun.inf file as autoplay is enabled on the windows drive by default.

Some of the autorun related virus problems for which we have already posted the solution are

• Problem-in-formatting-pen-drive
• Hidden-files-and-folders-are-not-visible
• Not-able-to-open-drives-on-hard-disk-by-double-click
• How-to-remove-funny-ust-scandal-aviexe-virus
• Drive-opens-in-new-window-on-double-click-in-windows-xp

All these problems are caused due to enabled autoplay on windows drive. We need to stop windows from executing instructions in autorun.inf files  

Let’s see how can you disable autoplay on drives

Fix:

To disable autorun for all the drives on your computer, you will need to configure it through windows registry.

Follow the procedure below to stop autoplay on  windows drives

1. Open Start >> Run or press Window + r

2. Open registry by typing regedit.exe and press enter

3. Navigate to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

4. Double-click the NoDriveAutorun registry key and type the value in Hexadecimal as FF ( or 255 in Decimal).

Note: If their is no NoDriveAutorun registry key, just create it by right-clicking the right side area of the regedit window, then select New >> DWord Value >> type NoDriveAutorun and press enter.

5. Exit registry and restart your computer for changes to come into effect.

This is how you can disable autorun on all your drives and at least will prevent autorun activity of virus infected USB pendrives or CD’s and avoid infection through autorun.inf viruses.

• AutoRunExterminator – Delete / Remove Autorun.inf in Hard drives and USB drives root directory
• Clean Viruses From Your USB Drives – Delete Virus Created Files And Other Specific Files From Pen Drives With USBDriveFresher
• Remove Viruses That Uses autorun.inf File By Flash Disinfector
• USB Autorun Blocker – Prevent Virus Infection From Pen Drive

Author + Admin: Rohit Khurana
Software Engineer by profession. I am a part time tech blogger and believe in blogging because I enjoy writing on technology. I also write about Cars and Bikes at www.carblogindia.com. You can catch me on twitter @rohit_khurana. Get in touch with me at RohitKhurana.in.