Disable USB device’s AutoPlay feature in Windows 7
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. But, as you might realize, it comes with a heavy price. 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.
It is pretty simple to turn off the AutoPlay feature on Windows 7 for any external media devices.
Start by typing “group policy” on the Windows Search Box. Windows 7 will narrow down to “Edit Group Policy” on the list. Click on “Edit Group Policy” item.
Once Windows launches “Local Group Policy Editor” window, on the left side of the window expand the nodes “Computer Configuration” and then “Administrative Templates” and then “Windows Components” and then choose “AutoPlay Policies”. On the right side of the window you should be able to see “Turn off AutoPlay” option.
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 “Disabled” option to disable the auto play feature of Windows. Make sure to hit the OK button to dismiss the dialogue.
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. Keep in mind that this tweak requires Administrative privileges and this applies to all the users of the computer including the Administrator.
I hope you take the precautionary step to make sure you don’t accidentally run into issues with your computer with viruses and such. This is just one more prevention on the cautious side.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
It's August 20th and it looks like the Windows 7 RC Download site is not loading up already. Anyone facing the same issue?
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:23 am
Don't you need to Enable the setting and not Disable? You're enabling the ability to turn off autoplay.
"If you enable this setting, you can disable Autoplay on CD-ROM and removable media drives, or disable Autoplay on all drives."
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Rod – Thanks for noticing that. You are correct it need to be "enabled" to disable to the auto play feature! How broken is Microsoft's usability team? How hard it would be to change those options to say more meaningful "Turn on Autoplay" or "Turn off Autoplay"? That would have taken out a heck a lot of confusion. Apple would have done it that way. But again, that's Apple and this is Microsoft!
Thanks again for pointing that out.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
There is a mistake in the article, the "Disable" option will not bring the effects you want. "Enable" option is correct which can disable AutoPlay feature on removeable devices or all drivers.