This follow a thread in the general discussion about safe usage of portable applications.
Since the autorun function is the cause of many infections, I was wondering why the PortableApps platform has one.
It is handy, I agree, but I rather trade ease of use for security. as mentioned on the other thread I use Panda USB vaccin to prevent autorun on external devices to launch. Still, I recently use portable applications and I am glad to have your opinion. Thanks.
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It's perfectly safe to delete the autorun file.
They have it for convenience for people not running Windows 7, which will ignore it anyway.
And if they didn't, a virus/trojan could just make one. That wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for malware. Not including one doesn't protect anybody, but would make it more confusing with the less computer-literate.
The computer I'm at now has autorun disabled, so I just call Run (Windows key + R) and start typing the USB port's drive letter - F:\ - and then the drive's root folder's contents are listed, I just go down to StartPortableApps.exe and run that. Works just as good for me.
I am glad to see we do the same. I do not have autorun on the system either. I do not know W7, but reading your message, I see autorun has been removed. FIY (if you do not know this site already) I like this http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html (take a look, it is a USB Drive Letter Manager for Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003 and Vista). It serves me well with external drives.
This is out-topic, but I have tried a linux disto a few days ago, and I would switch yesterday if they it was offering the same software I am used to. I have been impressed. That's the WV with a Porsche engine vs. the family van with too many unnecessary options.
One of the many great things about USBDLM is that it allows
you to disable m$-autorun entirely and replace it with the USBDLM in-built autorun-handler . This will only allow pre-approved drives to autorun. Whitelisting can be done via a bunch of criteria including USB-device SR# or volume-ID ..
It's not 100% fool-proof but A LOT safer than the alternative .