[This article refers to the Autorun feature of Windows
PCs only]
In this article you'll discover how to create an
autorun CD with a simple text file and a few commands.
First off, how does the computer know to
automatically start the cd?
The computer looks for a file called 'autorun.inf'
in the root directory of a CD or DVD as it is inserted
into the drive.
What is this autorun.inf file?
It’s a text file containing a few simple computer
readable instructions, and can be created with a
text editor such as Notepad. This file MUST be placed
in the root directory of the disc and MUST be called
autorun.inf, otherwise the disc will not auto-start
properly. The first line is always '[autorun]' and
each command begins on a new line underneath, for
example:
Sample autorun.inf text file
The 3 most common commands are 'open', 'icon' and
'label', and while others are available they are
more complex and less frequently used.
So how do I auto-start my program?
If you want to automatically start an executable
file (e.g. a Flash projector presentation), place
your EXE file in the root directory and create an
autorun.inf file with the following lines:
[autorun]
open=myprogram.exe
If you want to auto-start a program located somewhere
else on the CD (eg. in a sub-folder called TestFolder)
then adjust the path to the program in the autorun.inf
text file, as below:
[autorun]
open=TestFolder\myprogram.exe
But I want to autorun a Word document I’ve
created
The main problem with the autorun function is that
only programs (e.g. Word) can be started automatically
but not the data files (e.g. your Word document).
However, there is a way around this limitation by
using a small utility program to act as an intermediary
between the autorun.inf file and the data file you
wish to auto-start.
So how do I auto-start an html, pdf, doc
or other file type?
As long as the file type you wish to run is associated
with a program already installed on your machine
(e.g. DOC files are usually associated with Microsoft
Word) you can use a ‘launcher’ type
utility such as the excellent ShelExec.exe
autorun by Naughter Software.
To use it, put the ShelExec.exe file and your data
file (e.g. mydatafile.pdf) into the root directory
of the CD and put the following text into the autorun.inf
file:
[autorun]
open=ShelExec.exe mydatafile.pdf
In this example, when the CD is inserted, the program
associated with PDF files (usually Adobe Acrobat
Reader) will start automatically and open mydatafile.pdf
document inside it. To make things a little neater
on the CD, and to keep the root directory as clear
as possible, you can put the ShelExec.exe file into
a subfolder (called Launch, for example), and by
updating the path the autorun.inf file would look
like this:
[autorun]
open=Launch\ShelExec.exe mydatafile.pdf
What about
the other common commands 'icon' and 'label'?
These two commands allow you to change the default
CD icon and the electronic volume label you see
when navigating your computer using Explorer. By
changing the icon and specifying your own disc volume
label it gives the disc a more professional feel.
To begin with you'll need an icon file, you could...
...would open a PDF document called mydatafile.pdf
within Adobe Acrobat Reader and the CD would appear
visually within Explorer as below:
Result in Explorer of using 'icon' and 'label'
commands in the autorun.inf file
Advanced autorun commands
Other commands are available but are too advanced
to feature here, however the Microsoft
Developer Network Autorun.inf page discusses
them in more detail.
