How to make a cd rom auto start

[vex]

I am building a cd rom database of prices for my customers and want to make the cd rom auto start when the disk is installed.

It is html based, what settings do I need to make on the file or CD?

[neilus]

You need to create a file could AUTORUN.INF and place it on the CD (at the top level).

The file needs to contain the following:

[AutoRun]
open=startup.exe

The open bit tells the system which program to run, in my case it was startup.exe. I tried playing around with it to automatically open a web-page, but couldn't get it to work.

Hope this helps,

Neil.

[miniman]

To open an HTML page you could try

open=iexplore.exe file:///index.htm or similar.

Or try creating a shortcut to the index page and make the open command open the shortcut.

[arcturus]

Whilst neilus is right, there are some issues with this approach not always working under all flavours of Windows.

To get round this you can use Autorun by Typhoon Software which generates all you need to do the job safely and reliably irrespective of the windows version. It will also start web pages and many other types of program automatically. I have used it successfully for a few years now.


>> Edited by arcturus on Wednesday 4th May 08:35

[zumbruk]

BTW, there's a Registry entry to disable this functionality (which I always set...). I can't recall what it is, 'cos I only use it once in a blue moon, but be aware that even if you create the CD right, it may not work everywhere!

[pdV6]

miniman said:

To open an HTML page you could try open=iexplore.exe file:///index.htm or similar. Or try creating a shortcut to the index page and make the open command open the shortcut.

You also ought to be able to just have your index page as the argument to the "open" instruction, then whichever application is registered to handle html pages should fire up (pet hate of mine is programs deliberately starting IE for me when I'd prefer FireFox!).


{edited to correct a bit of slick dexic typing}

>> Edited by pdV6 on Wednesday 4th May 11:00