How to Disable Autorun USB Flash Drives in Windows XP

You have probably heard about the Harry Potter virus. It's made its rounds lately and has been written up all over the place. Sophos calls it W32/Hairy-A. Another in the recent rash of worms taking advantage of the AutoRun feature for removable drives that is built into Windows XP is the W32/LiarVB-A which puts information about AIDS on your computer for you. After working with computers and user support for over twenty, I thought I had seen it. But..Not.

Most articles and descriptions tell you to disable the AutoRun feature in Windows XP to protect your computer. I haven't seen one that tells you how to do just that. A couple of places gave a vague reference to using TweakUI.

TweakUI is part of Microsoft's "PowerToys collection" that gives you some tools to make additional adjustments to XP without hacking into the registry. I've worked with Windows for years in Information Technology, and I always take seriously the power of making adjustments to Windows via this method. It is extremely powerful, and therefore is very dangerous. Editing the registry can fix your system or really screw it up if you aren't careful. TweakUI gives you a nice GUI interface to make some of these settings. The problem is that TweakUI is not installed into Windows XP by default. You have to go get it at Microsoft.

First step is to download the TweakUI software. In an internet browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to this Microsoft site and look on the right side for the TweakUI download. Just click to download. When it asks "Would you like to save this file?" for the TweakUIPowertoySetup.exe file, click on the "Save File" button.
Second step is to install the TweakUI software. Find where you saved the file and double-click on it. It will install the program. The name of the file is TweakUIPowertoysSetup.exe if you have to search for it.

Third step is to use the TweakUI software to turn off the AutoPlay of your removable drives like usb drives. Click on Start. Go to All Programs. Then to PowerToys for Windows XP, and then chose TweakUI. In TweakUI, on the left side, you will see a pane with a tree of choices to items with settings to adjust (or tweak as we techies like to say). You are looking for "My Computer". Click on the plus sign next to it to open the next level. You will see AutoPlay. You are getting closer. Click on the plus sign next to AutoPlay and you will see three choices: Drives, Types, and Handles. Click on Types and in the right pane you will see the AutoPlay Drive Types. Uncheck the box next to "Enable autoplay for removal drives" to disable that function. Click on Apply. Then OK to exit.

And that's it. You will have AutoPlay turned off and will be safe from this type of worm. Harry Potter and friends won't take over your computer. If you decide to, you can easily turn it back on as needed because now you know how. The power returns to the People!!