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Another setting of note is the Auto Insert Notification option, often referred to as AutoPlay in Windows 2000/XP/Vista. This setting enables Windows to detect automatically the presence of audio or data optical discs when they are placed in the drive.

Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista all have very different ways of dealing with AutoPlay. In Windows 2000, if the CD is an audio disc, track 1 plays automatically. If the CD-ROM is a data disc, Windows searches the disc’s root directory for a special text file called AUTORUN.INF.

Although handy, the AutoPlay option can sometimes be annoying and unproductive. Windows 2000 does not provide a simple method to turn off AutoPlay. The only way to turn it off is to edit the Registry. You can use the REGEDT32 version of the Registry Editor and do it directly. In REGEDT32, access this subkey:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom

Change Autorun 0 × 1 to 0 × 0.

Most techs use Group Policy to make the change because it gives you much more control in multiple optical drive situations. With Group Policy, you can turn off AutoPlay on your CD-RW drive, for example, but leave it enabled for your DVD drive. Group Policy is a powerful tool that goes well beyond CompTIA A+, so be careful with what you’re about to do. To run Group Policy, go to Start | Run and type gpedit.msc in the Run dialog box; or in Vista, just go to Start and type gpedit.msc in the Start Search text box. Click OK to open the MMC. To turn off AutoPlay, navigate down in the menu to the left as follows: Local Computer Policy | Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates. Select the System option and you’ll see the Turn off Autoplay option in the Setting section on the right pane of the MMC (Figure 13-34).

Figure 13-34 Group Policy MMC with Turn off Autoplay selected

Double-click or right-click Turn off Autoplay to open the Properties. Note in Figure 13-35 that the default option is Not Configured, but you can enable or disable it here. The words are messy here, so make sure you know what you’re doing. Enabling Turn off Autoplay gives you the option to stop an optical device from automatically playing a disc. Disabling Turn off Autoplay prevents you or any other user from stopping any optical-media device from automatically playing a disc. Got the distinction?

Windows XP provides a much more sophisticated and simpler approach to AutoPlay. By default, when you insert a CD- or DVD-media disc that doesn’t have an AUTORUN.INF file, XP asks you what you want to do (Figure 13-36). You can change the default behavior simply by accessing the properties for a particular drive in My Computer and making your selection on the AutoPlay tab. Figure 13-37 shows some of the options for a typical Windows XP machine.

Figure 13-35 Turn off Autoplay Properties dialog box

Figure 13-36 XP prompting user for action

AutoPlay in Windows Vista is much more robust and offers many more options than in Windows 2000 or Windows XP. For example, you can choose to enable or disable AutoPlay for all media and devices. (Using AutoPlay for all media and devices is the default.) But what’s more interesting is that you can enable very specific actions for Windows to take when digital media or devices are inserted or detected. For an audio CD, for example, you can specify that Windows should use Windows Media Player. If a DVD movie is detected, you can tell AutoPlay to play the DVD by using PowerDVD 8 or some other program. You can adjust AutoPlay options in Windows Vista through Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | AutoPlay.

Figure 13-37 AutoPlay tab for a CD-RW drive

As a final note, in Windows 2000, XP, Vista, you can change the drive letter for an optical drive, just as you can change the letter of a hard drive. You’ll find that option in Disk Management (Figure 13-38).

Applications

A regular CD-ROM drive installation involves no applications. You install it, Windows sees it, and you’re finished. CD-R and CD-RW drives, in contrast, require applications to enable their burning features. DVD