How to make a USB Flash disk Autorun

rastorize · August 17th, 2004, 03:32 PM

I really need some help here...

We are doing a business campaign, and one of the giveaways is a USB Flash disk drive. We want the clients to be able to simply plug in the USB key into their USB port and have it autorun...i.e. have a menu pop-up (an .exe) much like a CDROM.

Assume that the clients will be using Windows XP Pro as their OS, and haven't disabled the autorun feature.

I've created the autorun.inf:

[autorun]
open=menu.exe
icon=menu.ico

So these are the files that are on the USB key:
autorun.inf
menu.exe
menu.ico

And it doesn't work.

Has anyone tried this before? Any suggestions on how to get this to work?

TIA!

originel · August 17th, 2004, 03:34 PM

if you've installed tweakui there is an option to enable/disable autorun on any drive.

VHockey86 · August 17th, 2004, 03:36 PM

try using "shellexecute" instead of "open"

rastorize · August 17th, 2004, 03:37 PM

Yes, I have tweakUI installed, and I've set it on my machine so that it'll autorun...but it doesn't seem to work with the USB key.

I am guessing the clients will have a standard XP build without such power tools...so whatever XP's default settings are is what they'll have.

rastorize · August 17th, 2004, 03:38 PM

I'll give it a shot VHockey

rastorize · August 17th, 2004, 03:45 PM

Well, shellexecute didn't work. Thank you though.

I know it's seeing the INF file because it assigns the proper icon to the drive...I just can't get it to execute anything.

Any other suggestions?

ArcticFox · August 17th, 2004, 08:42 PM

XP as far as I know does not autorun flash drives, you might be SOL.

skysox · December 2nd, 2004, 01:11 AM

I find it hard to believe that more people don't want to do this too! Please... I desperately need to find a way to allow this as well. I want to plug in a memory card into my USB card reader and have it autorun a program. I know it's possible to do, because this Japanese company has enabled it in their USB flash drive, but unfortunately it's proprietary software.

http://www.udrw.com/en/product/

and here:

http://www.mobileplanet.com/product....dp_id=MP729998

Any other info/advice or possibly useful websites welcomed!

[I am using Win XP Pro SP2]

skysox · December 2nd, 2004, 11:09 AM

Ah.... Found a good solution myself... It's a 15 day trial software version... but quite cheap anyway.

http://www.microtoolz.com/ [Click on the "Products" button]

Worked for me, for my USB Memory Stick... but not for insertion of my Memory Cards into a card reader, unless (with the card inserted), I unplugged the card reader USB cable, and then replugged it back in each time. (Then it worked fine, as if I had just inserted a card).

Apparently from what I've discovered, this FULL capability of sensing media change (from within a card reader) is not built into WinXP. But if anyone can work out a Registry hack, please let us know !