Here you first get a notification on your screen. However, when I pop the same CD into Windows 7, I instead get the following AutoPlay dialog:Īs you can see, it’s trying to run the DVDsetup.exe file mentioned in the autorun.inf file, but now you get the option to choose. In Windows XP, the disc is read, an autorun.inf file is found and the MSI setup program automatically pops up on the screen. The AutoRun.inf file is the simple one shown in the above screenshot. I have a MSI driver CD with me that I will pop into Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 10 to see what happens. To make this totally clear, let’s go through an example. If there is an AutoRun.inf file, it will still be read, but instead of the application being launched automatically, a dialog box will pop up with a list of choices, some of which could be from the autorun.inf file.

In Windows Vista and higher, AutoRun cannot skip past AutoPlay. In Windows XP, if the autorun.inf file is found, AutoRun can go ahead and bypass AutoPlay altogether and launch the application without asking the user first. If it’s not disabled, AutoRun will execute and it will search for the AutoRun.inf file. Now depending on the operating system you are running, AutoRun and AutoPlay will work differently. In all versions of Windows earlier than Windows Vista, AutoRun is executed before AutoPlay, unless AutoRun is disabled. This obviously posed serious security risks and Microsoft introduced AutoPlay as a way to fix the problem. AutoPlay’s job is to examine a newly connected media device, determine what kind of content is on it, and then display a dialog that allows the user to launch an application to play, run or display the content. If you have ever popped in an install CD/DVD for a piece of hardware or a program in Windows XP or earlier, it would just start running the setup program. In Windows XP and earlier, the file would be read and automatically run without any kind of prompt.

Autorun not working windows 10