Disable autorun/autoplay property

Posted by Piyush in Troubleshooting      Comments Off

Sep
13

Disabling Autorun Property

To disable autorun using Group Policy Editor
Start ? Run ? gpedit.msc
Go to Computer Configuration ? Administrative Templates ?System
Double-click
Turn off Autoplay
Select
Enabled
Turn off Autoplay on = All Drives

Start ? Run ? Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER ? SOFTWARE ? Microsoft ? Windows ?CurrentVersion ? Policies ? Explorer ? NoDriveTypeAutorun
Set the following value
NoDriveTypeAutorun = FF (Hexadecimal) or 255 (Decimal) Disables AutoRun on all kinds of drive

To disable autorun of CD drive
Start ? Run ? Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ? System ?CurrentControlSet ? Services? CdRom
Set following values
AutoRun = 0 (to disable autorun on CDs)
AutoRun = 1 (to enable)

Hold on SHIFT key while inserting CD in CDROM

Safely Remove/Delete autorun.inf file

Posted by Piyush in Troubleshooting      Comments Off

Sep
13

Safely Remove Autorun.inf

Start ? Run ? cmd
Type
c:\Documents and Settings\abc\>x:
x:\>dir /a autorun.inf
Check if the autorun file exists
If yes, then change the attributes of the file by typing
x:\>attrib autorun.inf -R -H -S
Now you will be able to see the autorun.inf file visually in Windows Explorer.
View the contents of autorun.inf (using the safe method mentioned above), before you delete them.
Delete the file by typing
x:\>del /P /F /A autorun.inf

If you are unable to delete the autorun.inf file
or
the autorun.inf file appears again and again.
Then you can conclude that your system is infected by some virus.

In such case you have to remove the virus from your system then only you can get rid of this autorun.inf.

Precautions while using pendrives

Posted by Piyush in Troubleshooting      Comments Off

Sep
13

Precautions

1. Double-clicking a drive may infect your computer with the virus on the drive.
2. Even Right-click ? Open or Right-click ? Explore may lead to the virus infection.
3. If you think that autorun.inf can infect only if its in the root folder of a drive, then you are wrong. Think again. Even network drives have autorun properties. A network drive linked to a folder, containing an infecting autorun.inf file, on a network behaves the same way, when you double-click the drive.

Using Autorun.inf Folder

If you create a folder named AUTORUN.INF in the root directory of a drive, most of the viruses are unable to delete such folders to replace with their own infecting autorun.inf file, this is possible because almost all the virus programs have codes to replace/delete the autorun.inf file and not the folder. You may be safe for sometime, but not longer until a better virus breaks in.

Best Practices

1. To view files inside a drive to use the tree-view of Windows Explorer.
   My Computer ? View ? Explorer Bar ? Folders
   Click on the removable/pendrive on the left side tree-view folder panel to explore, instead of double-clicking the drive.
2. Typing the drive name on the address-bar of Windows Explorer.
   My Computer ? click on Address Bar ? Type x:\

How to view contents of Autorun.inf file

Posted by Piyush in Troubleshooting      Comments Off

Sep
13

Old Practice/Risky Technique:
Type x:\autorun.inf in the address bar of windows explorer. This will open the autorun.inf file in a notepad if it exists.
What’s the problem?
If there exists a virus file named autorun.inf.pif it will get executed.
How to safely view the file?
Safe Method:
Start ? Run ? notepad
File ? Open ? "x:\autorun.inf"