Today I will teach you how to disable autorun on windows 7 in less than 2 minutes. This will make your system or PC more secure against Trojan and virus attacks. Your system will not get infected until you executes the exe (executable) file by yourself.
How to Disable autorun in windows 7 |
You might wonder what autorun is and if it’s similar to autoplay. I often hear people ask if they can be used interchangeably. Most users don’t know the difference between autoplay and autorun, but after reading this article you will be able to distinguish between both terms.
Let’s start with similarities: both autoplay and autorun are terms coined by Microsoft especially for the windows platform. Autorun and autoplay are actually configuration files which contain the list of commands that decide which action your operating system should take when you connect or mount a new media or drive on your system.
AutoPlay is a feature introduced in Windows XP which examines removable media and devices and, based on content such as pictures, music or video files, launches an appropriate application to play or display the content.
But autorun is little different. AutoRun is actually a feature of the Windows Explorer service (of the shell32 dll), which enables media and devices to launch programs by use of commands listed in a file called autorun.inf, stored in the root directory of the medium. Suppose you want to execute the contents of a folder, in this case root directly is your folder.
Whenever a user double clicks on an executable file, a set of instructions are executed in background. These instructions are written in autorun.inf files which tell our operating system which program has to be executed when the user double clicks the exe file.
There is one more underlying concept known as a batch program. Batch programs are the programs which run at the back end without the user being aware. And which file schedules them, which file decides what has to be executed? That would be autorun.
The autorun.inf is similar to .ini files, containing information and commands as key = “value” pairs. These keys specify the following things:
- The name and location of a program to call when the medium is inserted (the “AutoRun task”).
- The name of a file that contains an icon that represents the medium in Explorer (instead of the standard drive icon).
- Commands for the menu that appear when the user right-clicks the drive icon.
- The default command that runs when the user double-clicks the drive icon.
- Settings that alter AutoPlay detection routines or search parameters.
- Settings that indicate the presence of drivers.
Autorun makes the viruses or Trojans execute on your system without your interaction. Hackers write viruses and add their virus execution codes in autorun.inf files which automatically start executing as soon as you attach the device to your Laptop or PC. Autorun is actually a open door to attack your system, making it easy for hackers to spread their viruses and Trojans.
Which brings us to how to disable autorun or autoplay in windows 7.
I have made a video tutorial for you which will explain all the possible ways to turn off or disable autoplay in windows 7. Watch the video and give your feedback.
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