Custom Search

---

Guy's Review of
Computer Tools

1) FreePing
 2) Engineer's Toolset
3) Xobni
4) PuTTY (UNIX)
 5) WMI Monitor
6) BgInfo
7) Net-SNMP
 8) IP Address Tracker
9) DNS Stuff
10) WinDiff Compare

---

Windows 8 jokes

Windows 8 AutoPlay

Windows 8 AutoPlay Disable | Enable Settings

The idea of AutoPlay is to select which program is going to play your music, or displays your photos.  For no apparent reason AutoPlay develops its own ideas of which device to connect to your media.  Fortunately, this page will show you how to regain control with NoDriveTypeAutoRun in Windows 8 .

Topics for Windows 8 AutoPlay Enable | Disable

• How to Configure Windows 8 AutoPlay from the Control Panel
• What Are AutoPlay and Autorun
• Troubleshooting AutoPlay Using Group Policy Editor
• Registry Values for AutoPlay NoDriveTypeAutoRun in Windows 8
• Make the CD-ROM Available Only to Users Who are Logged on Locally

 ♦

How To Configure Windows 8 AutoPlay From the Control Panel

Microsoft's Windows 8 has an AutoPlay enable / disable setting for each type media.  This is how you can configure the default settings for each device or media type

Click on the Windows 8 Start 'Orb', Control Panel, Hardware and Sound, AutoPlay.

Quick and Easy - Turn Off AutoPlay

The first step is to remove the tick next to: 'Use AutoPlay for all media and devices'.

More Subtle AutoPlay Configuration

Popular options to enable AutoPlay are:
Play xyz using ....
Take no action.

It is worth scrolling down the list in your Control Panel just to see the sheer scale of the media that you AutoPlay can enable or disable.  There are normally 4 options for each type of media.  Once you have made your selection then save, or else reset to the default.

Troubleshooting AutoPlay Using Group Policy Editor

If the above settings are just taking you around in circles try gpedit.msc.

To open the Local Group Policy Editor click on the Start Orb, type: gpedit.msc (remember the .msc extension).

Drill down to:
Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates /
Windows Components / AutoPlay Policies

Edit the Setting: Turn off AutoPlay -->  Disabled.

Now you can reset it to Not Configured, which is the default state.

See more on Windows 8 Group Policy disable USB.

Troubleshooting AutoPlay Using Regedit

Since the Local Group Policy Editor is not supplied with Windows Home editions, you will need to employ regedit to achieve the same result.

Open regedit and locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Change:  NoDriveTypeAutoRun to 0x91

If necessary create this key as a DWORD.

AutoPlay Repair Wizard

This freeware download fixes defective AutoPlay configurations.  Download this Repair Wizard and fix AutoPlay settings..

Free Monitor for Your Network: SolarWinds Real-time Traffic Analyzer

The main reason for monitoring your network is to check at a glance which servers are available.  If there is a network problem you want an interface to show the scope of the problem immediately.

Even when all servers and routers are available, sooner or later you will be curious to know who, or what, is hogging the precious network's bandwidth.  A GUI showing the top 10 users always makes interesting reading.

Another reason to monitor network traffic is to learn more about your server's response times and the consumption of resources.  To take the pain out of capturing frames and analysing the raw data, Guy recommends that you download a copy of the SolarWinds free Real-time NetFlow Analyzer.

The Difference Between AutoPlay and Autorun

Autorun is a fore-runner of AutoPlay for the CD-ROM drive.  Let us analyze the operating system's reaction when you put a DVD in the caddy.  Manufacturers include an autorun.inf file to specify what should auto-start when you close the caddy.

Unlike other AutoPlay media, the CD-ROM has extra hardware considerations which are dealt with by Autorun.  AutoPlay helps choose which application autorun should report to.  In the case of a music DVD, which program should take over from autorun and start playing the music.  Alternatively, you can configure Autorun to do nothing and select manually.

This is the registry setting to check, or to turn off Autorun:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\cdrom

A value of 1 means enable autorun (on), while zero means disable autorun. 

Note 1: Make sure that you are in the CurrentControlSet, not ControlSet001.

Note 2: There was an autorun setting for anyone still using a floppy disk!
HKML\CurrentControlSet\services\floppy

AutoPlay, MCN and CD-ROM

MCN (Media Change Notification) messages from the CD-ROM driver, trigger how AutoPlay deals with a DVD.  And if you suppress these messages then the DVD will not start playing automatically.  The way to disable AutoPlay is by launching Regedit and adjusting the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun or NoDriveAutoRun in the registry, this is an alternative to the Control Panel method I described earlier.

The benefit of using NoDriveTypeAutoRun, rather than NoDriveAutoRun, is that you can select which drives you wish to disable.  For example, you can allow only CD-ROM drives to run AutoPlay.

Registry Values for AutoPlay NoDriveTypeAutoRun in Windows 8

Here below, is a table of the hex values to control AutoPlay on a variety of drives.  The entries are a bitmapped value. To disable Windows 8 AutoPlay on a particular type of drive, set the bit representing that type of drive to 1.  If you want to disable more than one type of drive, sum the hexadecimal values of the representative bits.

The default value for in Windows 8 for NoDriveTypeAutoRun is 0x91 (145).  You calculate the figure by summing: 0x1 (unknown types), 0x80 (unknown types) and 0x10 (network drives).  In Vista the default is 0x95 (149), the extra 4 is accounted for by the disable floppy drive setting.

Guy Recommends : SolarWinds' Free VM Monitor

The great feature of this new this new version of SolarWinds VM Monitor is that it checks Windows Hyper-V.  Naturally, it still works with virtual machines on VMware ESX Servers.  VM Monitor is an nifty desktop tool that not only tests that your server is online, but also displays the CPU and memory utilization for each node.

It's easy to install and to configure this virtual machine monitor, all you need the host server's IP address or hostname and the logon info.

Download your free copy of SolarWinds VM Monitor.

Registry Settings for NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Note that in Windows 8 NoDriveTypeAutoRun is in the Current_User section of the registry.

1. Click on the Windows Orb, Type: 'regedit' in the Start Search box. (See more details on starting regedit)
2. Navigate to this path:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3. If necessary create a dword called NoDriveTypeAutoRun
4. Set NoDriveTypeAutoRun = 000000FF 
5. 000000FF (decimal 255) means disable AutoRun on all drives.
6. A better strategy is refer to the above table, and use a Hexadecimal calculator to compute the best value for your machine.
7. There is no need to logoff; the NoDriveTypeAutoRun setting will take effect immediately.

Guy Recommends: The Free IP Address Tracker (IPAT)

Calculating IP Address ranges is a black art, which many network managers solve by creating custom Excel spreadsheets.  IPAT cracks this problem of allocating IP addresses in networks in two ways:

For Mr Organized there is a nifty subnet calculator, you enter the network address and the subnet mask, then IPAT works out the usable addresses and their ranges.  For Mr Lazy IPAT discovers and then displays the IP addresses of existing computers. 

Download the Free IP Address Tracker

Make the CD-ROM Available Only to Users Who are Logged on Locally

Local Group Policy Editor Method
You can use GPEDIT.msc to restrict the CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only.  Once you launch Gpedit.msc, navigate to this section of the Local Group Policy Editor:

Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Security Settings, Local Policies, Security Options,
Devices: Restrict CD-ROM access to locally logged-on user only.  Enabled

Registry AllocateCDRoms  Method
You could also achieve the same result by editing the registry directly:

• Type 'regedit' in the Start Search dialog box.
• Navigate to this path:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
• Modify AllocateCDRoms, else create a Reg_SZ.
  Set the value to 0.   Meaning make available only to local users, and NOT those connecting across the network.

MSConfig

It's always interesting to see which services and programs have hitched a ride on the operating system's startup routine.  I recommend that you click Start (orb) type 'MSConfig' in the Search dialog box and then check the 'Services' and 'Startup' tabs.

See more about MSConfig »

Summary of Windows 8 AutoPlay Enable | Disable

It's well worth visiting the Control Panel, Hardware and Sounds, just to see the range of media that you can enable or disable for AutoPlay.  The purpose of AutoPlay is to select which of your programs should play by default.  For example, if you insert a music DVD, AutoPlay and Autorun work together to decide which of your programs should play the sound tracks.  As with most Window 7 settings, there are additional registry keys to fine tune the behavior, which you can access via regedit or gpedit.msc.

Microsoft Windows 8 Registry Topics

• Windows 8 Overview  • Activate Windows 8 Administrator  • Windows 8 Remove Shortcut Arrow

• Windows 8 Registry Cleaner Review  • Windows 7 Style Start Menu  • Windows 8 Administrative Shares

• Windows 8 Registry  • Windows 8 .Reg Examples  • Windows 8 .Reg File • Windows 8 AutoRun

 *

Custom Search Site Home	Guy Recommends: SolarWinds Free IP SLA Monitor SolarWinds IP SLA Monitor offers so much more than just uncovering network bottlenecks, the real joy is learning about router traffic. To find out what's happening on the network between your computers and their routers, download your free copy of the of IP SLA Monitor.
Article by: Guy Thomas Copyright © 1999-2012 Computer Performance LTD All rights reserved. Please report a broken link, or an error to: