Autorun

PDD

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know how to setup a thumb drive to automatically execute a program when its plugged in like a CD. I know it can be done but Im wondering if anyone out there has done it and if so do they have a link to the tutorial they used etc.

Dave

timeout

http://www.phdcc.com/shellrun/autorun.htm

The above is for a cd but might apply to a pen drive also.

Gadgetman496

Dave,
You can download an App that will make your pen drive bootable from
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/serveroptions/us/download/23839.html

Then follow this link to learn more.
http://www.weethet.nl/english/hardware_bootfromusbstick.php

Hope this helps a little

PDD

Cheers Gadgetman,

But thats to make the ThumbDrive bootable, I want to make it autorun like a CD whereby I plug in the ThumbDrive and it runs a particular script etc.

Dave

Gadgetman496

Hi Dave,
I'm not 100% sure but I would imagine that you could do this easily using a "Batch" file.
In the old days of DOS, windows used to take it's instructions at startup from a file called "Autoexec.bat". Even in Windows XP that file still exists, but may be hidden.
Anyway, when you make your pen drive bootable, check to see if it has a file called "Autoexec.bat" on it. If it has, all you would need to do is open it with your editor (Notepad) & insert a new line into it that would instruct it to run a particular executable file. For example, let's say your pen drive was drive 'G' & you wanted to run the windows calculator at startup? you would insert the following line into the autoexec.bat file.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe

Then when the autoexec.bat file runs at startup it would automatically run & open the windows calculator.

Now, if there is no autoexec.bat file on the pendrive? you can create one yourself. Just open notepad, type the command you want to execute & save the file as "Autoexec.bat" to your pen drive.

There is one more thing to bare in mind. Not all scripts or exe files can be run from the pen drive, so you could also do something like this.....

1. Copy whatever it is you want to run to a directory on the pen drive.
2. Create (or use existing) autoexec.bat file
3. Insert the following lines into the batch file

@echo off (This will just hide the instructions on the screen as they're run)
cls (This will just clear anything that might be on the screen)
C: (Changes from the pen drive to the PC's hard drive)
md dirname (Makes a directory on the PC with whatever name you decide)
cd dirname (Changes the directory to the new one just created)
copy g:\dirname*.* c: (Copies everything needed from the pen drive directory to the new directory on the PC's hard drive)
Name of file you want to run (Runs the file\script you have chosen from the PC & not the pen drive)
del install.bat (Deletes the batch file from the PC's hard drive, but not the pen drive)

I hope some of this will help sort you out. Maybe other users might be able to explain this to you in a better way? but i think it is pointing you in the right direction. Either way, I hope you can get it sorted.

dahamsta

Bear in mind that if your USB ports will allow autorun for you, they'll allow autorun for everyone...

Social Engineering, the USB Way

adam

Capt'n Midnight

Ken Shabby wrote:

Bear in mind that if your USB ports will allow autorun for you, they'll allow autorun for everyone...

Social Engineering, the USB Way

adam

As a variation on a theme

I just love the way most versions of windows will try to install and activate a USB wifi adaptor - I mean why does server 2003 start the wireless service by default ??

PDD

PDD wrote:

Hi Guys,

Does anyone know how to setup a thumb drive to automatically execute a program when its plugged in like a CD. I know it can be done but Im wondering if anyone out there has done it and if so do they have a link to the tutorial they used etc.

Dave

Make a plain text file in the root of the device called "autorun.inf" and enter the following into it:

[Autorun]
open=<app name>

For example if you want to run test.exe enter "open=test.exe" as the second line.

I think XP will prompt you to "Run the specified program on this device" along with the usual pics, music and video links but I think you can set it to remember that.