WOW 13

WOW 13 - Autoplay and Handlers

Good Afternoon Friends,
Hope all of you liked the last two articles on Virus Prevention. Today as promised, I will be covering Autoplay function in detail.

Though I use a RC version of Windows 7 on my machine, I will be covering this aspect with respect to Windows XP coz many of you would be running Windows XP in your machine.
I will also be recommending a tool (by Microsoft) in this article specially designed for tweaking certain features in Windows XP. This will also let you add an Autoplay Handler. You'll read more about Autoplay Handler below:

As I mentioned in yesterdays article, Autoplay is a very useful function (according to me) which helps us choose which software we would like to use while inserting a CD, DVD or even a thumb drive.
I personally recommend not to turn off Autoplay feature in your system. However, if you still want to turn it off, follow the steps below:

Steps to turn off Autoplay:

1. Open Group Policy Editor. (Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc)
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
3. Select Turn off Autoplay in the right pane and here you can choose between All Drives or only for CD/ DVD's.
   
4. Click on Enable and choose the desired feature from above and close the Group Policy Editor.

   
   

Autoplay Handler:

If you chose not to turn off Autoplay, you might be interested to add an Autoplay handler. Say, for example, you are inserting an Audio CD of your favorite Music. Windows detects it is an Audio CD and lets you choose whether you want to play that using Windows Media Player or just browse the CD. Maybe say, Winamp is your Favorite Audio Player and you want to add a Autoplay Handler for Winamp to play Audio Discs. To do that, follow the steps below:

Steps to add an Autoplay Handler: (Using Tweak UI)

1. Download and Install Tweak UI. Direct link from Microsoft Downloads (http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe)
2. Open Tweak UI and Navigate to MyComputer -> Autoplay -> Handler.
3. Click on Create and choose CD Audio from the Supported Media. (Screenshot attached)
   
4. Click on Change Program button and open the appropriate program. (say C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe)
5. Once you are through with Step-4; you will get the Winamp Icon. Enter relevant information in the other field. Leave the Args field as "%L".
6. Click on Ok; you have now added a handler. Similarly, you can add any no of handlers.
7. So, next time you insert an Audio disc, Windows will show an option to play your Audio Disc with Winamp.

Now, it is up to you to either disable Autoplay or to add a handler. Hope this information was useful.

Danish:)