What is "autorun.inf" ?

While opening some optical drives (CDs) or pen drives you might have noticed that they contain autorun.inf file in it. Some people assume that it is some Virus/Malware which might infect their computer. But actually autorun.inf is just a script for invoking any event when some CD or Pen Drive is Inserted in PC. This feature is actually a part of shell32.dll.

You can set your own custom icon and your own custom file to start when media is inserted in computer. If you are a geek, then you can accomplish much more and impress your friends with some smart autorun scripts while burning CDs for them!

A sample of autorun.inf file looks like as shown below:

[autorun]

open=autorun.exe

icon=autorun.ico

label= My Thumb Drive(98XXXXXXXX)

Taking above examples I’ll explain functions of commands here-

Open – Specifies which file to start when media is Inserted.

Icon – Specifies the Icon to appear in Windows explorer

Label – The Volume of Drive to Appear in Window Explorer

If you are lazy at writing this codes you can try a free tool, Autorun.inf Maker.

You can bypass events written in autorun.inf by pressing shift key while inserting Pen Drive or CD. This is useful when you are unsure about what Pen Drive or CD might contain. However, I recommend you to use some good antivirus like AVG or Avast which takes less load on system and detects any unwanted threats. There is also an antivirus Program which is made for this purpose only which is mentioned here.

Download Autorun Maker