Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

Hello
Usually, when I connected a usb pendrive or put a cd in my drive, I had the autorun/autoplay window which appeared, however now am not getting anything when using these devices. I did not change any registry settings as well. Anyone can tell me how to recover the autorun feature on my XP?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by caperjack

Dani AI

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Short expert summary and a compact checklist that fills gaps in the replies from , and .

Windows updates changed how AutoPlay/AutoRun behaves (Microsoft released fixes that enforce the NoDriveTypeAutoRun policy and later restricted AutoPlay to CD/DVD media — KB967715 and KB971029). That is a common reason why autorun stopped working after installing updates; Microsoft also published a Fix‑It that resets the relevant settings (which is what ’s Microsoft repair tool likely did for ). (learn.microsoft.com)

Quick functional checks (do these first — no registry edits yet):

  • Verify the Shell Hardware Detection service is set to Automatic and is started (Start → Run → services.msc, find Shell Hardware Detection → Properties → Startup type = Automatic; or run net start shellhwdetection). AutoPlay depends on that service. (learn.microsoft.com)

Registry / policy items to inspect (backup before changing anything):

  • Check these keys for NoDriveTypeAutoRun / NoDriveAutoRun:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
    If a non-default value is present and AutoPlay is wanted again on XP, restoring the common XP value (hex) 0x91 often brings back the usual behavior — or remove the policy entry to revert to system defaults. Always export the key first and reboot after changes. (learn.microsoft.com)

If a single device still behaves oddly: Windows caches per‑device AutoPlay info in MountPoints2. Clearing that cache (export first, then delete HKCU\...\Explorer\MountPoints2 and reboot) forces Windows to re-learn the device. Note: disabling/enabling AutoPlay via Group Policy or domain settings will override local changes — check for domain GPOs before editing local registry. Also remember that allowing autorun on removable media raises security risk. (cisa.gov)

Useful .reg snippet to restore the common XP value (export registry first):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091

This complements the earlier suggestions (antivirus checks from and the Microsoft repair tool used by ) with the service, registry, and cache steps that typically solve XP SP3 autorun/autoplay problems.

Recommended Answers

All 6 Replies

Member Avatar for flagstar

Check your antivirus setting, they might actually block your autorun from running. If you're running Avira, more the reason...

Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

Am on Panda, and it did not block anything. I believe this comes from an udpate in windows itself, as before the updates it used to work, but I recently installed the updates and it stopped.

Member Avatar for flagstar

Well make sure your AUTOEXEC.bat didn't go missing. There should be under Properties on either CD/DVD drives or Removable Drives. On Autorun tab, check 'prompt each time'. That should do...

Member Avatar for caperjack

hi,try the auto run repair tool from Microsoft .

Member Avatar for Ritesh_4

thanks caperjack, i tried like flagstar said but it was still not working, the repair tool did the trick

Member Avatar for caperjack

your welcome

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