March 15th, 2016

Why doesn’t this registry hack for disabling autorun work?

A customer reported that they used a registry hack to disable Autorun, and it doesn’t work. “Do we have any documentation on the above registry key so I can check that they applied it properly?”

There is no documentation on that registry key because it’s just some people putting together fragments of information in the hopes that something interesting will happen. Sort of like saying, “I found this Web site that says that if I take my vacuum cleaner, reverse the power leads, then plug it into a transformer that steps the voltage down, I can use it like a hair dryer. I tried it, but it doesn’t work. Is there any documentation on the Hoover Web site that goes into the details of this technique so I can check that I performed the steps properly?”

There is a “Disable autorun” group policy. That is the supported mechanism.

Author

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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