be disabled for all drives and for all users. This example would need to be run as Administrator and a reboot would be needed for the setting to take complete effect. Initialization file mapping Windows Vista and later versions of Windows have a policy setting, "Default behavior for AutoRun", that can be set to disallow the reading of an autorun.inf file on any volume. This avoids certain scenarios where malware leverages autorun.inf functionality to infect a machine. Previous versions of Windows do not have this policy setting but the use of initialisation file mapping is an effective workaround. As an autorun.inf file is a standard Windows INI file, the appropriate API calls are used by Windows when fetching its settings. These API calls can be redirected using the INI file mapping method. The following Registry file illustrates the workaround, where all autorun.inf settings are taken solely from the Registry key: As this key does not exist, it is as if the autorun.inf file contains no settings information. It is important to note that this applies to any autorun.inf in any location and on any drive. Since either the policy setting or this workaround disable autorun, installation of software from an autorunning install CD or DVD will obviously no longer be automatic. It will be necessary to view the CD's autorun.inf file and then execute the appropriate install program manually. Issues and security Microsoft recognized that "Because code may be executed without user's knowledge or consent, users may want to disable this feature because of security concerns." and released a "Fixit" to disable AutoRun for users not comfortable with editing the registry. The AutoRun disable bug From Windows 2000 through to Windows Server 2008, AutoRun-relevant Registry entries were not handled properly leading to a security vulnerability. Windows 95 and Windows 98 were not affected. When AutoRun is disabled, Windows should not proceed further through the activation sequence than the Registry check. However, it parses any autorun.inf found and does everything except the final action to invoke AutoPlay or execute an application. This leaves the user open to attack from malware which uses the autorun.inf to alter the double-click and contextual menu behaviours. Double clicking the drive icon will infect the machine. Right Clicking and selecting the "Explore" or "Open" options from the context menu is not a workaround as these menu items can be coopted by the appropriate autorun.inf entries. This