Disable autorun in Windows

"Autorun.inf" virus are commonly infected in flash drives nowadays. Especially when you plug your flash drives into public computers such as school computers or work computers, your flash drives are probably been infected by the virus.

After you back to your personal computer and plug the infected flash drive, your computer may also be infected (unless your antivirus program is able to detect and prevent it). This is due to the autorun function for flash drives plugged into computer USB port. The "Autorun.inf" file is actually a system file which uses to indicate which file or program to be run once an flash drive is plugged in. But this file now are commonly used by virus spreaders to spread virus. So, I would highly recommend any of you to turn the windows default autorun function off to avoid the infection (in case your antivirus is not able to detect).

For Windows 7:

1. Start -> Control Panel
2. Click on Hardware and Sound
3. Click on AutoPlay
4. Uncheck the option Use AutoPlay for all media and device
5. Click Save and exit. You're done.

For Windows Vista:

1. Click Start -> type in gpedit.msc in the search box, then hit Enter
   

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow

2. Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Autoplay Policies.
3. In the Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay.
4. Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.
   
5. Restart the computer.

For Windows XP Professional:

1. Click Start, click Run, type "gpedit.msc" in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.
3. In the Settings pane, right-click Turn off Autoplay, and then click Properties.
4. Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.
5. Click OK to close the Turn off Autoplay Properties dialog box and restart the computer.

For Windows XP Home Edition or other operating systems that do not include gpedit.msc:
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

1. Click Start, click Run, type in "regedit" in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following entry in the registry:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutorun

3. Right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type 0xFF to disable all types of drives.
5. Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.
6. Restart the computer.