How to Disable Autorun USB Flash Drives in Windows XP

Three Easy Steps to Protect Yourself from Latest Rash of Virus Worms like Harry Potter

You have probably heard about the Harry Potter virus. It's made its rounds lately and has been written up all over the place. Sophos calls it W32/Hairy-A. Another in the recent rash of worms taking advantage of the AutoRun feature for removable drives that is built into Windows XP is the W32/LiarVB-A which puts information about AIDS on your computer for you. After working with computers and user support for over twenty, I thought I had seen it. But..Not.

Most articles and descriptions tell you to disable the AutoRun feature in Windows XP to protect your computer. I haven't seen one that tells you how to do just that. A couple of places gave a vague reference to using TweakUI.

TweakUI is part of Microsoft's "PowerToys collection" that gives you some tools to make additional adjustments to XP without hacking into the registry. I've worked with Windows for years in Information Technology, and I always take seriously the power of making adjustments to Windows via this method. It is extremely powerful, and therefore is very dangerous. Editing the registry can fix your system or really screw it up if you aren't careful. TweakUI gives you a nice GUI interface to make some of these settings. The problem is that TweakUI is not installed into Windows XP by default. You have to go get it at Microsoft.

First step is to download the TweakUI software. In an internet browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, go to this Microsoft site and look on the right side for the TweakUI download. Just click to download. When it asks "Would you like to save this file?" for the TweakUIPowertoySetup.exe file, click on the "Save File" button.
Second step is to install the TweakUI software. Find where you saved the file and double-click on it. It will install the program. The name of the file is TweakUIPowertoysSetup.exe if you have to search for it.