AutoRun Control Readme

This program is technically in Advanced Alpha test. This means that it works so far on everywhere I have tested it, however as it involves registry manipulation there is always the chance I have missed some possibility, so I would advise caution when using this. That said I have confidence that the worst which could happen is that it will not work at all, but then again it is only ever the unexpected problems which worry me!

The System Tray Icon

Only Audio CDs, not Data CDs, will AutoRun.

Only Data CDs will AutoRun, not Audio CDs.

AutoRun is enabled.

AutoRun is disabled.

Left Clicking the Icon will cause the status to cycle between the four states mentioned above. Please note that the AutoRun status will remain set even if AutoRun Control is not running, or even deleted.

The Menu

Right Clicking the Icon will show the menu. Clicking any of the four options will set that status. See next section for Explore CD option. The Exit option at the bottom of the menu will quit the program.

Exploring the CD

Double Clicking the Icon, or choosing Explore CD from the menu will open Windows Explorer at your chosen drive. If you have not yet chosen a drive letter, the options box will show.

Changing Settings

After the first time you set the settings in the options box, you will not see the box again when you double click to explore the CD. In order to change or clear settings, you must double RIGHT click on the icon to display the box again.

What's New

Since 1.01
- Minor Bug Fixes
Since 1.00
- Graphical Menus Option.
- Will not display error if it is not possible to remove the icon from the system tray on Windows Shut down.
- Pressing OK in options box will not explore CD.
- Main icon now in 256 colours where available. (Microsoft, in their wisdom, decided that system tray icons should not be 256 colour, even when normal icons are, so these will remain in 16 colours.)

Uninstalling

Double Right Click to get to the Options box. Clear the drive settings from the registry by pressing the Clear Setting button in the options box, then press Exit. Delete the AutoRun Control.exe, and any others you may have had to install for this to run, which were not on your system already. Note that uninstalling does not reset the AutoRun status, so leave it set how you want it before uninstalling.

Known Issues (Bug list)

The new AutoRun status is not recognised by Internet Explorer 4 until it restarted

WORKAROUND: Ah, oops. Well how was I supposed to know Microsoft would come along and spoil everything? At present I have no suggestions for this, except not to have the desktop integration turned on. But I don't recommend that, as the desktop integration seems pretty good to me.

FIX: Hmm… tricky one this! To be completely honest I don't know of any way to force IE4 to update itself without restarting. Maybe in a couple of weeks when Microsoft releases the next update, or perhaps for Win98 itself Microsoft will have fixed it themselves. Other than this, if I come across any fix, I will publish it here as soon as I have it.

When Right Clicking to show the menu, it does not appear until the mouse is moved.

WORKAROUND: Move the mouse after clicking with the right button.

FIX: None forthcoming, unless somebody who reads this can tell me a good way of telling whether a WM_MOUSEDOWN is going to be followed by a WM_LBUTTONDBLCLICK or not. :-)

Right Click menu does not disappear properly if you don't select one of the menu options.

WORKAROUND: Clicking on another program usually works, or try passing the mouse over the menu to make it disappear.

FIX: None forthcoming: This appears to be a problem with Visual Basic. Open to any suggestions.

Please email me if you wish to comment on this program, or to send in any bug reports or suggestions.