Thread: Disable AutoPlay Windows Vista

Windows Vista’s AutoPlay choices are a great development over Windows XP in terms of flexibility, but sadly there are so many choices that it can be confusing, particularly as there is no particular mention of USB Flash drives in options. Go to Control Panel, and then tick on “Play CDs or other media automatically” to open AutoPlay dialog.

Disable AutoPlay Globally

The fastest method to disable AutoPlay completely is to uncheck box for “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices”, which must generally work.

Disable for a Single Type

You can select a setting in drop down menu for an only drive, for case Audio CD here. To work you will have to ensure to keep global auto play choice on, and then select particular setting in drop-down.

Disable for just Removable (flash) Drives

Here difficulty is that as there are settings for Audio CDs and DVDs, there is nothing particularly for USB flash drives. Windows will decide drive type depend on content it finds on flash drive itself, so that we want to modify.

To disable AutoPlay for detachable drives, you must modify to take no action: Software and games, Pictures, Video files, Audio files, and mixed content.

Disable Through Group Policy

If it is not working for them, so if you want to disable it fully you can utilize Group Policy editor and Ultimate editions of Vista. Open up gpedit.msc from start menu search box, browse to Windows Components \ AutoPlay Policies, and modify value of “Turn off Autoplay” to enabled.

The simplest way to disable AutoPlay is to just uncheck the box for "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices", which should usually work.