[tm_nicholson]

Whenever I attach my external hard disk or insert a CD, Windows scans the entire contents (which can take quite awhile on a large disk) and brings up a list of suggested actions. Even when I select 'Take no action' and check the 'Do this in the future' box, autoplay is executed the next time I insert my media or device.

[Gaurav K]

One way to do this is using the tweak ui powertoy from Microsoft, found here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/d...owertoys.mspx. There are a few other ways but that involve playing around with the registry.

[blysik]

(Solution grabbed from engadget.com) How to disable via registry change:In Windows Click Start, Then
Click Run
Type regedit
Click OK
Click
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
SYSTEM
CurrentControlSet
Services
Cdrom
Double click Autorun the value is set to 1 by default, change it to zero.
Click OK
Now restart, that's it!

features.engadget.com


Edited for readability.

[degeneracypressure]

To disable autorun in Windows XP Professional, do the following: Start > Run > gpedit.msc (Left Pane) Computerer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System (Right Pane) Set "Turn off autoplay" to "Enabled"(In the snap-in, it says, "Note: This setting does not prevent autoplay for music CDs." This means that the audio tracks on the CD will still play automatically--however, it *will* disable autoplay on the "data track" of the CD, which is what runs arbitrary code, like installers for evil DRM software, automatically.)To disable autorun in Windows XP Home Edition, do the following: Start > Run > regedit Find HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer Make a new value called NoDriveTypeAutoRun of type DWORD. Make its value 0x000000b1 (hex). Reboot to be sure it takes effect. To re-enable autorun in Windows XP Home Edition, go back and set the value to 0x00000091 (hex).



Edit:
Broken link removed.