AutoPlay is designed to save you time hunting for supported software whenever you insert a removable drive to your PC. In theory you should get a short list of actions that relate to the media that you connected, be it a flash drive, a pre-recorded CD/DVD or a rewritable disc. You can opt to set a default action that will run automatically or select one from the list. This is much quicker than sifting through the start menu to find the right program each time you want to use a disc.
You can edit the AutoPlay menu in Control Panel if you’re using Vista. Choose Start, Control Panel, Play CDs or other media automatically. For each media type you can then specify the action required from the drop down list. Choose Ask me every time if you want to see the AutoPlay menu when a disc is inserted, otherwise you can set a default action for the media type. In Windows XP, you’ll need to open My Computer and right click the device that you want to manage. Select the AutoPlay tab. You can now select the content type you want to edit and then select the action you want triggered by this kind of content. To display the AutoPlay menu, ensure that Prompt me each time to choose an action is selected. Click OK to confirm.
Editing default actions is all well and good, but what about AutoPlay entries that point to programs that no longer exist? Not all applications clean up after themselves properly when you uninstall them and a common piece of litter left behind is an orphaned AutoPlay entry. You can’t remove these in Control Panel, which is why you’ll need to use CleanHandlers to tidy up for you. This is a standalone executable that supports both Windows XP and Vista. The program is designed to scan the AutoPlay menu and display the options that it contains. You can manually delete items if you wish or get it to find and remove orphaned ones automatically. It’s a great way to keep your menu tidy with minimum effort.
Tidy up AutoPlay
Find and fix orphaned AutoPlay handlers with CleanHandlers
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When you insert a removable disk or drive, you’re presented with a list of AutoPlay options. What’s on the list will depend on the kind of media you’re using and the software that you have installed on your PC.
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In some cases you may have entries that refer to software that has been uninstalled. To clean it up, download and unzip Clean Handlers from http://windowsxp.mvps.org/autoplayhandlers.htm. Run the executable file from its location to see the contents of your list.
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Select an entry to see which kind of media it supports. Click Scan and Fix invalid entries to check each AutoPlay handler and remove any orphaned ones. This shouldn’t take long. Click refresh to see the updated list.
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