Is there any way to force a Windows 7 computer to process autoruns.inf on a USB stick?

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0

There is nothing nefarious about this question.

We have some temporary worker who will be doing work on some confidential information.

I would like to give them the data on a USB stick, set up as a Truecrypt traveller disk, which they can stick into one of our computers.

I would like them to be prompted for the password, the partition gets mounted, they can then work on the data, save it, shut down the computer and return the USB stick.

Is this possible?

chris

Posted 2012-08-03T17:17:27.483

Reputation: 8 607

2You understand that you will be opening the computers up to malware that spreads via autorun on portable storage right? There is a good reason why this is disabled these days. – Zoredache – 2012-08-03T18:42:02.103

@Zoedache If it's for a "temporary worker w/ confidential information" and an "encrypted drive", I doubt there is going to be malware. This is a good question for other people as well, like IT people who have to install programs rapidly on various computers. – cutrightjm – 2012-08-03T22:40:09.440

@Zoredache: I realize that it opens up the possibility of infection, but in this case the risks are acceptable. And when the job is done, all of the machines are wiped and re-imaged anyways. The computer that would be used for consolidating the processed data would absolutely NOT have this feature enabled. – chris – 2012-08-04T00:16:26.027

This is a good question, I've wondered about this myself... – MDT Guy – 2013-03-04T18:42:33.627

Answers

2

Yes, there is a registry keys that effect this, it is located at

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutoRun

or 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutoRun

If both locations are set HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE will override any value set in HKEY_CURRENT_USER

The value of this key is a bitmask, you need to add the values together to get the combination you want.

  • 0x1 Disables AutoPlay on drives of unknown type.
  • 0x4 Disables AutoPlay on removable drives.
  • 0x8 Disables AutoPlay on fixed drives.
  • 0x10 Disables AutoPlay on network drives.
  • 0x20 Disables AutoPlay on CD-ROM drives.
  • 0x40 Disables AutoPlay on RAM drives.
  • 0x80 Disables AutoPlay on drives of unknown type.
  • 0xFF Disables AutoPlay on all types of drives.

So if you want to enable USB drives you will need to "subtract" 0x4 from the value you have (but only if the number has the 4 bit set).

This solution works all the way from Windows 7 to XP and likely works on windows 8 but is untested by me.

Read more: http://www.fortypoundhead.com/showcontent.asp?artid=2705

Scott Chamberlain

Posted 2012-08-03T17:17:27.483

Reputation: 28 923

This doesn't work at all. There is no "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and under HKEY_CURRENT_USER there is even no "Explorer" folder. So I tried manually creating the DWORD under both paths and set the value, but it had no effect. – user1132363 – 2015-08-15T07:39:13.287

But as a better solution, why not just have the data on a network share and have them access it though that (or must they be able to not be on the network?) – Scott Chamberlain – 2012-08-03T17:42:18.903

The machines are not networked. – chris – 2012-08-03T18:19:15.123

Asked: 2012-08-03T17:17:27.483

Viewed: 1 294 times

Active: 2013-03-04T21:25:22.983