Over the years, system administrators have come up with various tricks to accomplish this task. Tim wrote about a few useful ways that people use Windows Task Scheduler to launch various jobs, and Varun covered a series of useful USB apps that can come in handy. In this article, I’m going to cover a few USB auto-launch techniques that administrators have used. You might have been told that it’s impossible to auto-launch applications on your USB card on your Windows 7 computer. I’m here to show you that it is not true.

How You Used to Auto-Launch USB Apps

For years, at least since Windows 2000, but probably even earlier, system administrators have used the autorun.inf technique to autostart applications on a USB memory stick just like the autorun feature worked on computer CDs.

The autorun.inf file could be as complicated or as simple as you liked. The simplest form was as follows:

[autorun]
icon=mypic.ico
open=start-zim.bat
action=Click “OK” to start your apps!

All you would need is the icon image and the batch job available, and the moment you inserted your USB stick into a computer running an OS like Windows XP, you would see the following options automatically pop up.

Just click OK and you’re good to go. You can launch a batch job that starts all of the apps that you want, and you essentially have a customized way to open up all of your apps in an automated way that saves a lot of time.

This was somewhat limiting, because you had that pop-up prompt. I’ve heard that there were ways to get around the pop-up that involved a little bit of tweaking/hacking, but in doing so you introduce the ability to hack any computer with some virus simply by inserting a USB stick. Microsoft caught on to this in Windows 7 and completely disabled the USB functionality of autorun.inf in that operating system. Future updates of Windows XP also disabled that feature. So what’s a system admin to do?

Launching Apps Automatically From Your USB Stick

Well, where there’s a will there’s a way. And yes, there is a way to launch a program just by inserting your USB stick into a Windows 7 PC.

The first thing you’re going to want to do is install AutoIT, which Guy covered a while back. AutoIT is a very cool scripting language that lets you compile those scripts into exec programs that you can distribute to any PC. The download includes an editor as well as the converter software.

The great thing about AutoIT scripts is that there are lots of brilliant people out there creating scripts for a long list of tasks. The following script is what you use to detect whether a USB stick has been inserted into a port.

$DBT_DEVICEARRIVAL = "0x00008000"

 $WM_DEVICECHANGE = 0x0219

 GUICreate("")

 GUIRegisterMsg($WM_DEVICECHANGE , "MyFunc")

 Func MyFunc($hWndGUI, $MsgID, $WParam, $LParam)

 If $WParam == $DBT_DEVICEARRIVAL Then

MsgBox(4096, "Info", "My Drive has been Inserted, Backup My Files!")

 EndIf

 EndFunc

 While 1

 $GuiMsg = GUIGetMsg()

 WEnd

That script will recognize a “device change”, and for a USB stick it will launch a message box, as shown here.

Now, think about that. If this script will recognize a USB stick in order to launch a message, then it can be slightly modified to launch a program instead. So, in order to do this, I took the script above and replaced the MsgBox command with the following line:

Run ("F:\System\Apps\ZimWiki\Zim Desktop Wiki\start-zim.cmd")

What this does is senses when I’ve plugged in my USB stick, and then automatically launches the Zim Wiki app I have on my USB stick that I use to organize and monitor my writing work.

Now we have a way to auto-launch a program just by inserting the USB stick. However, let’s take it a step further and launch a whole collection of apps by launching a batch job on your USB card called startapps.bat that launches all the programs you want for that particular stick.

START "" F:\System\Apps\ZimWiki\Zim_Desktop_Wiki\start-zim.cmd

START "" C:\Users\Owner\MUO_STORY_IDEAS\MUO_STORY_IDEAS.txt

START "" FIREFOX.EXE http://www.makeuseof.com/wp-admin

What’s the point of this? The point is that now you can have a unique “startapps.bat” script for various USB sticks. One might be for your school work, in which case you’d open your class webpage, a word processor and maybe a spreadsheet for the class. Another might be for your work as a help desk tech, where it would auto-launch PC support utilities and your favorite tech website (MUO of course).

The only catch is this – the EXE file you create with the AutoIT script has to be running on every PC that you want the auto-launch to occur on. This satisfies the Windows 7 security demands. Just open the AutoIT script above, and compile and build the script to create your EXE file. Put that EXE in the Startup folder of the computers you use most often.

If the script is running, you’ll see the following Icon in the task bar.

This setup is great because there’s no prompt at all – just insert your USB stick and all of your required apps will just launch automatically.

Give the script a try and see if you can get this setup working with your own USB stick. Do you like this approach? Any tips for how to improve it? Share your insight in the comments section below.

ramasamy chidambaram

The Achilles heel which viruses exploit is the autorun.inf file. Autorun.inf file is a simple instruction file present in removable media like CDs, DVDs and USB drives. This file contains a series of commands that triggers the operating system to start an executable, tells it which icon to use, and which additional actions to make available. A basic autorun.inf file looks like this ““

[autorun]
open=autorun.exe
icon=autorun.ico

Special Note: Autoplay is the Windows action which asks you to specify the application to use to open a particular file. The autoplay dialog box asks you to select from the options when you insert a media. Autorun on the other hand, is the Windows action which automatically launches applications depending on the commands given in the autorun.inf file when we double click the removable drive icon.

The keyword is automatic. We have to find ways to short circuit the automatic execution of programs (good or bad), so that a hidden malware does not penetrate our system. The idea then is to change the way Windows handles the autorun.inf file. The methods expressed here are majorly for Windows XP.

Use the SHIFT key

Suppress autorun by pressing the SHIFT key when inserting a USB drive. Then, right click on the icon in Explorer and select Explore to access the contents of the drive. This is a one-time action and you have to keep that in mind every time you insert an USB drive. And you have to be ever mindful of never double-clicking your USB drive icon in Explorer.

Go to the Group Policy Editor

Group Policy Editor is used to define user and computer configurations for groups of users and computers.

1. Open GPEditor via Start ““ Run. Enter gpedit.msc in the Run box.
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates ““ System.
3. Highlight System on the left hand pane. On the right hand pane, go down to the entry – Turn off Autoplay and double click on it.
4. Select the Enabled radio button, then for the Turn off Autoplay on dropdown, select All drives.

This will disable the autorun feature and let you explore the drive contents for all drives instead of directly opening it.

Hack the registry

We can also disable the autorun feature by making a change in the registry. Be forewarned that if you are not at ease with the registry, it is advisable to skip this step.

1. Launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run box (Start -> Run)
2. On the left hand pane, keep expanding the entries by clicking on the + sign. Search for this entry ““ HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer
   
3. For this registry entry, go to the right panel and double click the NoDriveTypeAutoRun registry key.
4. Change the Value data to FF for Hexadecimal or 255 for Decimal value.
5. Click OK to close the registry editor and restart the computer.

Fall back on software

If you are the type who hates going into the guts of the operating system, there are of course handy pieces of software available. Here are two examples of such applications.

USB 1.3

This 7KB USB anti-virus tool works by detecting the removable drive and renaming the autorun.inf file to autorun.inf_current date_time thus preventing its running by the system. The program loads in the system tray and with just one click, you can turn Autorun on or off. Another option informs the user about all actions on autorun.inf files.

The program works from the system tray and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Windows 95.

TweakUI

TweakUI, Microsoft’s Power toy for Windows XP gives a user access to system settings that are below the visible interface of the OS.

To disable autoplay using TweakUI, go to the My Computer ““ Autoplay ““ Drives setting. Deselect the drive you wish to disable the autoplay for. Also, go to My Computer – AutoPlay ““ Types. Uncheck Enable Autoplay for removable drives. Click OK and you are done.

The 126KB download is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

These methods will prevent the automatic jumpstart of a USB drive. But if a malware sneaks through, then the value of a good, updated anti-virus and anti-malware as the first line of defense cannot be exaggerated enough.

Do you let a USB drive run automatically or do you control it with a blocking action? Which is your favored method? Let us know.

While we are learning more about USB drives, also take a look some of our popular posts about the device.

Image credit: Nedko

In this post, I want to cover a few apps that will make managing your USB drive easier. In essence, I’ll talk about tools that can be used to make things easier if you’ve got a USB drive ““ not about apps that work from your drive.

So here we go – five applications to make things easier if you’re using a USB thumb drive.

1) Prevent Virus Infections on your USB Thumb Drive with ThumbScrew

If you’re working on a system that’s probably infected with viruses, you wouldn’t want to see your USB thumb drive get infected by the same ““ they probably have some backups of your data that you cannot afford to lose. However, if you’re in an inevitable situation where you really have to access the USB drive, do so after you install ThumbScrew.

ThumbScrew can be used to write-protect your USB drive so that malware from your computer doesn’t spread to it. Download and launch the app, right click the System Tray icon and choose “˜Make USB Read Only’. Nothing could be written to the USB Drive, you’re completely protected from infections spreading to your disk from your computer.

2) Eject USB Devices Quickly with USB Disk Eject

Let’s admit it. Windows does give you options to eject your USB drives ““ we all use that by clicking on the “˜Safely Remove Hardware’ option in the System Tray. But have you ever thought it’s too cumbersome and the list confuses you more than helps you remove that particular device?

People who’ve got multiple USB Devices connected to their system will have really felt this annoyance as the hardware remove dialog doesn’t make it clear which option removes what device.

Here’s the way out: Download this tiny but functional app called USB Disk Eject. Just double-click when you need to remove a USB drive and a window will pop up listing the devices connected to your system via USB. Each device is labelled clearly and legibly. Just double-click on the one that you want to get removed and you’re done. Much quicker, I’d say.

3) Access USB Drives Quickly with Desk Drive

DeskDrive is somewhat similar to the above application, but it’s for keyboard junkies. Mark just mentioned it a few days ago here on Make Use Of. I’ve been using it since yesterday, and I couldn’t help thinking why Windows doesn’t have this feature by default.

Here’s a summary of the app: DeskDrive puts shortcuts to your USB drives on your desktop immediately after you insert them. Quick access. That’s pretty much it. For more, head on to Mark’s post or download the app directly from here.

4) Autorun Apps from your USB Drive with USB Autorun Maker

How many times have you browsed through those myriad of folders to launch that one particular app that you always run from your USB drive? Why not make it autorun so that the application launches immediately when you open the drive icon?

Yep, that’s possible, thanks to a utility called USB Autorun. Download USB Autorun (direct link), and use the options in the system tray icon to build an autorun.inf file. You’ll have to specify which app should be run automatically, and click “˜Build’ and the autorun maker will create an autorun.inf file that tells Windows that a particular app should be launched. No big thing to do here ““ you just need to specify the path where the app is present. Please note that this software is shareware, so there are some limitations.

5) Backup Files to your USB Drive with SyncToy

How many times have you copy-pasted those folders in Windows to back up your most important data and got fed up copy-pasting back and forth? Just relax, and get the SyncToy tool from Microsoft.

Install the Synctoy application, specify what directory should be copied to where ““ it’s called a “˜folder pair’ in Synctoy (here in this case, the directory where your files should be put in should be somewhere in your USB Drive) and then just press the Run button for the backup operation to take place. For an in depth guide, check out our previous guide on syncing your USB Drive. I bet this software will probably save you from a lot of frustration.

What other apps have made working with your USB devices easier? Let us know in the comments. I’m all ears!

(By) Shankar Ganesh, a 16 year old Blogger and Freelance Writer from India. He blogs about computers and software tips at Killer Tech Tips.