Hi everybody i'm sure there might have been a post about this somewhere but the search provided no results , anyway what i am trying to accomplish is to get my usb drive to behave like a u3 drive where upon insertion it pulls up the start.exe , now i didn't have the problem until after i installed a ton of apps on it then it wouldn't auto launch the start.exe i tried & tried & tried to recreate the autorun.inf here is what i currently have tried using this http://www.archidune.com/usb_intro , now i currently have no partions ive read somewhere that you have install a cdfs partion & then you can somehow get it too show up ive spent a couple of hours & probably will spend more so i figured why not join up & see if someone see's this post and is all like i got that shit here is the fix enjoy and i'm like respect . :S Thanks in advance to any help i can receive
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you write I can say this. It used to work this way out of the box. Then Windows disabled the feature to have usb auto run. I f you look in the directory where start is on the key the inf file exists. might want to check this thread out. Or even search for autorun in search pane?
Not sure if this info helps?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
for security reasons, microsoft blocked the automatic start of usb sticks on widows some time ago. There is no way to bypass that, it is not on the stick it is in windows.
For security reason it is also highly recommended not to try to bypass this mechanism.
The only way is to have a fake CD partition on your stick, which will make it similar to u3. Microsoft for some reasons did not block autoplay of data CD so far.
There are utils in net to help to create this fake partition, but it is not possible with every stick. It works only with some controllers.
Try to search on uwe siebert website, lot of inofs are linked there:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html
one of the utils is the ufdutility, will work on some drives on other not.
http://www.squidoo.com/usbcd
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
and thoughts are if he were to create on he should only place the start.inf and a shortcut to the rest of the usb drive on the device so as to not break the updates, new apps etc?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
the fake cd is here only for the autoplay functionality
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
I have a couple of U3 drives and they don't autostart anymore even on Windows 7. In XP and Win 7 the CD drive partition invokes an AutoPlay screen where I get to click on the option to open the drive to view the files which then allows me to click on the LaunchU3 exe.
You need a utility that constantly runs on the pc looking for the USB drive to be plugged in then starts something for you. Similar to an iTunes or cell phone or GPS app that autostarts when they are plugged in.
Ed
I got a stupid 2 gb free usb drive, has a college advertisement on it in the CD drive portion that contains a PDF file, once Insert it and after I click to allow it (in my AV software) it automatically boots my preferred software and loads the PDF , wonder how they doing htat?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
It could be that an autorun.inf on a CD can automatically open something (like a file) using a ShellOpen but can't run an EXE.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Responding in the middle of my edit lol Now I know why I submitted an edit and got access denied message So I added a new addendum.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Not to be rude, but I've learned long ago that you should finish your post instead of constantly re-editing.
The other caveat I see is that when you stop the Platform via the stop (X) or eject it will only stop/eject the USB Drive partition and not the CD partition?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
as the cd partition is meant just to bypass the autoplay restriction of windows. If autoplay is enabled for CD in windows, this can still be done,it can be switched on and off, then it can be used to start this and that. But the partition is mounted by windows alone and I doubt that eject mechanism of the paf platform will consider to also eject other drives as CD with the same set of commands.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
just not sure how it would handle if you closed the drive partition and yank the drive while the cd partition is still active
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
Read the comment that John made about my freebie USB drive, did some investigating, discovered it uses a program called Autorun.exe...did some more investigating and found this article note the section called "Extending the solution" so went to the mentioned site Tarma Software Research looked long and hard and finally found a download for it here with the site's page located here information on using program is here. Not sure if any of this helps or not? Not sure if you can have it run a shortcut or not?
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
the actual problem is, that before microsoft changed it, all was working for CD as well as for usb sticks.
Now the situation is different.
All work with autorun.inf is now possible when this is on a CD or DVD. Then windows will allow to use it the way it is described in all those links you have given. (note: they tell everywhere CD not usb flash)
As microsoft differentiate between CD and flash media, the whole thing does not work on usb sticks. If windows detects an usb stick, it will refuse to look at the autorun.inf and will therefore not know what is the autorun.exe etc.
That is one of the reasons why some people try to reproduce the idea of fake CD partition. autorun.inf in such partition will be considered by windows and all other following mechanisms can be applied.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
the original intent I believe of the poster to create a cdfs partition and have it auto launch
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
I use Winxp Pro SP 3, When I plug in my flash drive you can see it go through the files then the option window asks what you want to do ?, burn cd, open with this or that, open folder to view files, is this what we mean by auto start ? and can I/Should I stop it ? and, or, do we mean actually starting the PA platform/menu ?
before everyone got paranoid, if you inserted a drive into a computer with an autorun.inf file the computer would actually automatically run the file and start he program that it was associated with. In this case the Platform. However people/virus mongers/hackers monopolized this to create programs that would auto install with out you necessarily knowing, Microsoft killed the feature. ZDNet has a good article about it here.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” Dr. Seuss
was meant in this context.
Earlier, it was possible to have the autorun.inf set so, that when you insert the stick, you could start the PA menu from exactly the window you see now, or if you did little bit more it could all start completely alone.
Now you have still the winodw you see, still can see files, but can not start an exe directly from there.
This is the result of the patch issued by MS some time ago.
Any autorun from such media is disabled , but it can still be enabled for CD.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
It should be noted that "autostart" is composed of two things, 1. the autorun.inf file, whose function has been restricted by Microsoft, and 2. AutoPlay, which gives you options to select depending on the type of files on the removable media.
For U3's CD having AutoPlay opening the files in Windows Explorer is the best option because then you can click on the LaunchU3.exe. That option works well for starting PortableApps menu also.
hth
Ed
Ah, I'm good then. I didn't believe people still used U3, I thought it was old, outdated and such or something was wrong with it.
I have 2 U3 sticks that I've had for years. I don't use many of the U3 apps but I really like the security signon aspect of them.
SanDisk sold the U3 patents/rights to Microsoft years ago and Microsoft never developed it. And SanDisk stopped distributing it since they no longer owned the patent.
Ed
>but I really like the security signon aspect of them.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
If I loose it and someone finds it I'll bet they can't.
Ed
may some people cant, but it is not so big problem to get onto the contents even you have set the password.
If you loose the stick , depends kind of who did find it, but it is not a real problem for an average linux user.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland
Fortunately I don't know of anyone around here that uses Linux being any more of a tech than the average Windows user. They surf the web, write emails, watch movies, listen to music.
Kinda like do you know of many car drivers who are also mechanics?
Ed
https://portableapps.com/node/25739
there are many other howto in the net circulating, but well the u3 is not so interesting any more, so they do not develop much today.
Little surfing in net and one knows what to do.
Otto Sykora
Basel, Switzerland