PC Tips 4 All....

What is Auto Play in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7?  Well according to http://wikipedia.org, it is:

AutoPlay, a feature introduced in Windows XP, examines newly discovered removable media and devices and, based on content such as pictures, music or video files, launches an appropriate application to play or display the content.^[1] It is closely related to the AutoRunoperating system feature. AutoPlay was created in order to simplify the use of peripheral devices – MP3 players, memory cards, USB storage devices and others – by automatically starting the software needed to access and view the content on these devices. AutoPlay can be enhanced by AutoPlay-compatible software and hardware. It can be configured by the user to associate favourite applications with AutoPlay events and actions.

Basically,Auto Play settings are what automatically controls what happens when a particular action is performed in or on your computer.  For example, when you place a CD or DVD in your disk drive, these auto play settings tell your computer what to do when that action takes place.  Meaning, do you want Windows Media Player to automatically start up and begin playing your music from the audio CD without you having to do anything when you insert the CD… or do you want it to take no action or display the contents of the CD.

There are a number of settings for specific programs within Windows 7 that this can control.  You can change settings for your CD/DVD drive, Pictures, Blank CD/DVD’s, etc.

Based on your preferences, all these can be changed by following the steps below.  My suggestion would be to set them to Take No Action or Ask Every Time.  In today’s world with all the security issues out in the wild.  You will probably want to have more control.

Here are the steps to take:

1.  Click on the Start Button

2.  Click on Control Panel

3.  Click on Default Programs

5.  Click the drop down arrows on the sections that you would like to change

Please feel free to leave me a comment if you should have any questions.

Hope this helps!

Happy computing!

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