autorun from a CF Card?

[ingofutz]

Heya,

Can anyone tell me if you can use an "autorun.inf" somehow on a Compact Flash card? My tests don't seem to work.

Is there a way to make this work?

Thank you.

[MidwestDesign]

Not that I know of. We once had a sales/marketing person recommend this for our product demo, but found out from a hardware/network specialist that it couldn't be done with autorun.

[ingofutz]

that sux

[Mo1010427]

ingofutz,

I tried having a Flash projector file (.exe) run after called from a autorun.inf file. It worked just fine for me. I had to change a setting in Windows though. By default the autorun feature is set to "Ask me everytime". I had to set the "software and games" setting to "install or run program". This is located in Control Panel -> AutoPlay. Oh by the way, I was running Windows Vista and, to be technical, I used a SD card instead of a CF. In all honesty though, having a execute file autorun is a security risk. I don't think most people will change the setting to let it go automatically. Food for thought.

Mo

[ingofutz]

ingofutz,

I tried having a Flash projector file (.exe) run after called from a autorun.inf file. It worked just fine for me. I had to change a setting in Windows though. By default the autorun feature is set to "Ask me everytime". I had to set the "software and games" setting to "install or run program". This is located in Control Panel -> AutoPlay. Oh by the way, I was running Windows Vista and, to be technical, I used a SD card instead of a CF. In all honesty though, having a execute file autorun is a security risk. I don't think most people will change the setting to let it go automatically. Food for thought.

Mo

Thank you. I will give that a shot. I am using XP though.

The security risk is irrelevant. This is a project where we are in control of the host machines (public kiosks). Any tweeking to the host machine is fair game.

[Mo1010427]

ingofutz,

A follow up, I tried getting the autorun to work on my brothers machine (Win XP Home SP1) and I couldn't get it to go. First let me give you the specs to both machines used.

Worked on:
Laptop using Windows Vista Home Premium with a BUILT-IN card reader.

Didn't work on:
Desktop using Windows XP Home SP1 with a USB 2.0 card reader.

I don't know if the problem lies more within the OS or the way the reader is attached. My machine that I use runs Win98SE with a USB card reader and it didn't autorun either.(insert joke on equip here) So it may very well be the way the card reader is attached. Going to see if I can find someone I know that has a card reader built into their machine running something between 98SE - XP. I'll let you know what I find out.

Mo

[ingofutz]

ingofutz,

A follow up, I tried getting the autorun to work on my brothers machine (Win XP Home SP1) and I couldn't get it to go. First let me give you the specs to both machines used.

Worked on:
Laptop using Windows Vista Home Premium with a BUILT-IN card reader.

Didn't work on:
Desktop using Windows XP Home SP1 with a USB 2.0 card reader.

I don't know if the problem lies more within the OS or the way the reader is attached. My machine that I use runs Win98SE with a USB card reader and it didn't autorun either.(insert joke on equip here) So it may very well be the way the card reader is attached. Going to see if I can find someone I know that has a card reader built into their machine running something between 98SE - XP. I'll let you know what I find out.

Mo

Interesting. Thanks so much for checking that out! I look forward to hearing about any discoveries.

[Mo1010427]

Ok, I got my Uncle to try on his laptop with reader built-in running Win XP Pro. It auto recognized the card, but only gave the options to "Open folder to view files" or "Take no action". I then tried it again on laptop running Vista, only this time I connected a external USB 2.0 reader. It still auto recognized and ran the program. So apparently XP won't auto execute, but Vista will. *Scratches head* Almost seems ass backwards.....doesn't it?? Was interesting to me to find out. Hope it helped you in some way.

Mo

[ingofutz]

Ok, I got my Uncle to try on his laptop with reader built-in running Win XP Pro. It auto recognized the card, but only gave the options to "Open folder to view files" or "Take no action". I then tried it again on laptop running Vista, only this time I connected a external USB 2.0 reader. It still auto recognized and ran the program. So apparently XP won't auto execute, but Vista will. *Scratches head* Almost seems ass backwards.....doesn't it?? Was interesting to me to find out. Hope it helped you in some way.

Mo

Yes, that helps me immensely. That does seem backwards! Vista is supposed to be the security nazi?!

[Northcode]

Vista may let you run it, but it will run in a more secure context than XP provided to the application won't be able to do any damage unless the user lets it.

[Mo1010427]

Northcode,

I understand what you're saying. And correct, Vista asks for permission on every last little thing to run. However, the test example was a demo I had recently created in which I had 3 files. One was "autorun.inf", another "Demo.exe", and the last was in a FSCommand folder with the filename "Main.exe" Now, how it worked was the autorun called Demo.exe. Demo then called Main.exe and Main went fullscreen, while Demo continued to run. After I gave it permission to run Demo.exe it never asked for permission to launch Main.exe. Whether the setting was set to "Ask me everytime" or "Install or run program" it didn't matter. It never asked for permission to run the second execute. I'm not disagreeing with you, more just pondering how it will be picky about running one execute, but then not care about a second one being called.

Ingofutz,

Glad it helped

Mo

[Northcode]

Rights are inherited. If you trust the first application (basically granting it admin privileges) all the applications it launches will inherit those same rights so you don't get prompted again.

[Mo1010427]

Ahhh......Good to know. Learned something new. I thank you.

Mo