Microsoft has removed the autorun.inf feature from Windows 7. This means that when you insert the USB drive, the programs will not automatically start up. So is this good news or bad news? Spoiler Alert: It is good news!
First lets talk about the good aspects. With autorun.inf you could assign which programs should run automatically when USB drive is inserted, thus, making it easier for the users. This also saves them plenty of steps if the file/program is located deep inside some directory.
For every upside there is an equal downside. But in this case, it seems like autorun.inf has more downsides than upsides. One of the biggest problem of autorun.inf is the virus itself.
If a USB is infected by a virus, the moment you insert it in your computer, your system will get a virus too. The whole process is like a chain reaction. Autorun.inf virus is quite deadly and should not be taken lightly.
So how do we benefit from removing Autorun.inf feature? Lets suppose that you insert a USD drive in your computer running Windows Vista/XP, it will automatically catch the virus since the program(that is infected) will open automatically(if it is configured to open with autorun.inf). Now when you insert the USB drive in your computer running Windows 7 the virus will not come to your computer unless you don’t manually open the drive. Therefore, you will have a chance to scan the drive and clean all viruses before opening it.
Kudos to Microsoft for taking a good step here. We have covered countless ways to prevent Autorun.inf virus, but now thankfully Microsoft have saved the day. This is one of the many improvements Microsoft have made to make Windows 7 more secure.
Note: If your computer is infected with Autorun.inf virus, try Autorun Eater to remove it.
Update: Remember that Autorun will still work on CD/DVDs, it has just been removed from USB drives. Thanks
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17 Comments
Good news that Autorun.inf feature it's too annoying virus ,i have tried autorun eater and it really remove this virus
“Microsoft has removed the autorun.inf feature from Windows 7″: this is not completely correct. Autorun still works for DVD/CDs.
“AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives.” (http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/28...)
Good news that Autorun.inf feature it's too annoying virus ,i have tried autorun eater and it really remove this virus
“Microsoft has removed the autorun.inf feature from Windows 7″: this is not completely correct. Autorun still works for DVD/CDs.
“AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives.” (http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/28...)
Good news that Autorun.inf feature it's too annoying virus ,i have tried autorun eater and it really remove this virus
“Microsoft has removed the autorun.inf feature from Windows 7″: this is not completely correct. Autorun still works for DVD/CDs.
“AutoPlay will no longer support the AutoRun functionality for non-optical removable media. In other words, AutoPlay will still work for CD/DVDs but it will no longer work for USB drives.” (http://blogs.technet.com/srd/archive/2009/04/28...)
I disagree that it's good news. I use it all the time and have never gotten any viruses. Besides I see no difference in autorun running a program with a virus attached or manually running a program witht the virus attached. If autrun doesn't run the program then what do you do, you open the drive and manually run it which installs the virus anyway.. Think about it people. You don't know if it's infected till you run it. If you do know it's infected and haven't removed it from your drive already then your an idiot. Again microsoft has taken a useful feature and dumbed it down while adding extra clicks to get something done, simply because people to stupid to be careful. Windows is becoming so “Idiot Proof” orientated it's becoming far less competition to other OS's like Linux and alot less productive for advanced users.
Eh, don’t be a tool. If you knew anything about how viruses work you’d understand how USB devices make perfect carriers.
“You don’t know it’s infected till you run it.” Run what? You ever tried to “run” a USB drive? It doesn’t work without autorun.inf
you wrong guys i got infected by autorun.inf on windows 7 32bit ultimate i followed every possible instruction remover and used avast,kaspersky,avira,avg,and nod32 still they can't solve my problem cause “Autorun.inf” folder still in my drivers and i can't open some binary files like game patch when you click these .EXE a MSDOS file pop out with some kind a “~YEYUPDATE_PATCH” named on these MSDOS 2nd an “There is no Disk in the driver please insert a disk” pop out this is the sign that you got infected and there's nothing you can do reformatting a driver from desktop using rightclick still can't solve this a message saying “reformatting is unable to complete” but the driver is empty although there's still 5MB inside it..when this happens to you dont expect that you can solve your problem and probably this will lead you to full reformat with reinstall the OS…
really?? stop listening to scare ware bollics, and just learn something about the technology your using. Really. all you have to do is delete the autorun.inf or use tweakui to turn off autorun for your drives. Dead simple. Its not a virus just because some anti-virus/anti-malware suite gave you a pop up.
And on top of it all read those pop ups, thier not a bad thing just thier to show you something. if a “There’s no disk in the driver please insert a disk” comes up the check which drive letter is asking that, if its A: B: or D: drives then its your legacy removable media drives like those old floppy drives and cdrom drives.
WTF!!! autorun virus?!?! what are you guys moronic or something. Yes, one can create a SwitchBlade USB that can contain so call malware. But this is where commonsense, true trusted computing and not listening to that bollics coming out of corporate scareware.
Autorun.inf is not a virus! it is a feature created for removiable storage media to run your installers or what ever you program it to do. Its time to get off your scareware high horse and learn something about how your computer works under the hood.
Or better yet, join the open source movement(which again requires you to learn the workings under the hood) and become a free netizen of the world.
Again, it sounds like you don’t know what the autorun.inf virus is. The file itself is not a virus, but something that can be edited by viruses to transmit the virus to new computers.
Bad news for fellows Black hat Coders.. Like me,,,,
Terrible news. I have seen viruses use the autorun feature to spread through usb drives but I easily stopped them. Even in XP (at least SP2) would prompt the user if they wanted to run the app or not. I have perfectly valid applications that make use of this feature.
Removal of this facility can cause real problems, for example:
An autorun CD is fine until you have (say) a notebook that does not have a drive.
If it runs Windows 7 you are snookered – can’t autorun from USB either.
More and more machines are being sold like this.
Answer ,…….?
M
To be honest, I think it is very useful, but should be changed. I think Microsoft should have made an option when you first get the program Windows 7 to turn autorun.inf off or on (with “on” not recommended). This will give users the ability to turn it off when not needed (to protect from autorun.inf viruses) but they can temporarily turn it on before they insert their usb drive, if they need the file to autorun. Ten they may turn it off. Or they could personalize it to where only preferred USB Drives can do autorun.inf, like their own, protecting from external and internal intruding viruses and giving the user the advancement of autorun.inf from their own drive:).
this is annoying because i cant autorun my backup
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