# CD-ROM, Windows NT & Autoplay **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499 "2000-12-07T17:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499/1 "2000-12-07T17:00:56Z")
How the hell do I disable the autoplay “feature” for my CD-ROM in Windows NT 4.0? The Windows help file is singularly _unhelpful_. All it tells me is “When you put a CD into the CD-ROM drive and close it, Windows NT Explorer plays the CD automatically.” I really hate this. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499/2 "2000-12-07T17:16:15Z")
You need to edit the registry. Find the following key: “hkey\_local\_machine\system\currentcontrolset\services\cdrom\autorun”. Set it’s value to 0 (zero). That will do the trick. evilhanz ---
**Author:** ![Enos\_Strate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aca169/32.png) [@Enos\_Strate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enos_Strate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499/3 "2000-12-07T17:18:56Z")
from [winntmag.com](http://winntmag.com): "10. Turn off the AutoPlay feature on your CD-ROM drive. When your CD-ROMs contain other resources that you access regularly, AutoPlay automatically launches the installation program each time you insert a CD-ROM. To turn off AutoPlay, insert a CD-ROM, open the My Computer applet, right-click the CD-ROM icon, and select the AutoPlay option from the pop-up menu to toggle AutoPlay on and off. " I don’t know if it works or not, I’m on Win 98. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499/4 "2000-12-07T18:26:47Z")
Thank you, _evilhanz_! You are now my favorite new member. Sorry, Enos. I don’t know what the heck those guys are talking about; I can’t find anything with an “autoplay” label. Right clicking the CD-ROM icon gives me options for “Explore,” “Open,” “Find,” "Scan for Viruses,“Sharing,” “Add to Zip,” “Eject,” and a couple other things I can’t remember right now. Nothing about “Autoplay,” though. Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![evilhanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba8739/32.png) [@evilhanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilhanz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cd-rom-windows-nt-autoplay/44499/5 "2000-12-07T18:43:02Z")
UncleBeer: That’s sounds like a good sig candidate 🙂 In any case, you’d be amazed at the stuff you can find by simply poking around in the registry. Some of the PC and Server monitoring tools I develop go after a list of important keys and values in the registry of target computers. In order to figure out which ones are important, you stumble across those that probably aren’t, except today. 🙂 evilhanz