USB AutoRunner launches apps or documents when you plug in a flash drive

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

USB AutoRunner launches apps or documents when you plug in a flash drive

by Brad Linder May 7th 2008

Have a program on your USB flash drive that you want to launch every time you plug that drive in? USB AutoRunner is a little utility that will create an Autorun.inf file on your flash drive to let Windows know you want to run your portable web browser, office application, virus scanner, or any other applications installed on your flash drive.

You can also use USB AutoRunner to select documents that will be opened when you insert your flash drive. Your PC will open those documents using the default viewers. So if you've got a PDF that you want to launch, it will open up in Adobe Reader, FoxIt, or whatever PDF viewer is installed on your system.

You could create Autorun.inf files by hand, but USB AutoRunner makes the process much simpler.

[via Lifehacker]

Tags: autorun, flash-drive, usb, usb-autorunner

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

James said 10:22AM on 5-07-2008

This is a great idea, if you're so retarded you actually let flash drives autorun. Seriously, you should scrap this post and replace it with a reminder of how to disable autorun for non-CD removable media.

Oh, thank you for reminding me, Sony BMG -- forget what I said about "non-CD" =-)

James said 10:58AM on 5-07-2008

Actually, I just had a much better idea. Have your autorun.inf launch a registry key that disables autorun, silently if possible.

It's sort of like this idea that I had to write a worm that forces the target computer to turn on Windows Update. ;->

Marshall said 1:46PM on 5-07-2008

If it works, this is great. I tried to get Portable Firefox to open a webpage I had saved on a USB drive once for memory sticks we were giving away at a tradeshow booth. This tool would have made it much easier.

Bluestocking said 10:01PM on 5-11-2008

Just so that people know...the anti-malware program A-Squared Free (Emsi Software) installed on my machine claims that this program contains a trojan identified as Trojan.Win32.Agent.dij. I couldn't find much information about this particular trojan on the internet. I'm inclined to hope that this is a false positive, since the program sounds as if it would be useful.

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