How to disable USB device AutoPlay feature

AutoPlay feature of the USB device on Windows can be quite dangerous. It is certainly more convenient to have Windows immediately pick-up the USB device once you plug it into the USB port. No matter how careful you are, it is quite possible that your USB device could pick up a virus or if you allow others to use your computer it is more probable that the USB device that they might be plugging into your computer could contain viruses and all sort of nasty things, who knows!

It is, obviously, better to be on the safer side than sorry. Instead of allowing Windows 7 (or Windows Vista for that matter) to automatically play the USB device once you plug it in, why not just disable Windows from auto playing the USB device? With that way you won’t run into accidental virus issues and if you are certain that the device is safe to browse you can then obviously get to the device manually using Windows Explorer.


Windows 7

1. Click Start and then click Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. The Group Policy window will open. In the left pane, double-click Administrative Templates
2. In the right pane, double-click Windows Components, and then choose double-click the folder “AutoPlay Policies”
3. On the right side of the window you should be able to see “Turn off AutoPlay” option.
4. Double-click on the “Turn off AutoPlay” option and Windows will present you with the “Turn off AutoPlay” dialogue. On that window click on the “Enabled” option to disable the auto play feature of Windows. Make sure to hit the OK button to dismiss the dialogue.
5. Exit Registry Editor by selecting File, then choosing Exit from the menu.

Windows XP Profesional

1. Click Start and then click Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. The Group Policy window will open. 
2. In the left pane, double-click Administrative TemplatesIn the right pane, double-click System, scroll down the list and double-click Turn Off Autoplay
3. In the Turn Off Autoplay Properties window, select Enabled. From the dropdown next to Turn Off Autoplay on, select All drives and then click OK. 
4. Exit Group Policy by selecting File, then choosing Exit from the menu.

Windows XP Home Users

1. XP Home users will need to make the changes by editing the registry directly. To begin, click Start and then click Run
2. Type regedit and click OK. The Registry Editor window will open.
3. In the left pane, navigate to:  

HKEY_CURRENT_USER
Software        
Microsoft        
Windows        
CurrentVersion        
Policies        
Explorer.
(Note: For help navigating the registry, see the Windows Basics System Registry tutorial).


     4. With Explorer highlighted, in the right-pane right click the value NoDriveTypeAutoRun and select Modify from the drop down menu. The base value will be set to Hexadecimal. If not, select Hexadecimal.


     5. Type 95 and click OK.
Note that this will stop Autorun on removable/USB drives, but still allow it on CD ROM drives. If you want to disable autorun on both, substitute b5 for the 95.

You will now need to reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.
From now on Windows won’t try to automatically play the device when you plug-in a USB device or any other external media devices.