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Microsoft To Disable Autorun

Posted by timothy on from the mounting-is-fine-but-opening-is-obnoxious dept.

jchrisos writes "Microsoft is planning to disable autorun in the next Release Candidate of Windows 7 and future updates to Windows XP and Vista. In order to maintain a 'balance between security and usability,' non-writable media will maintain its current behavior however. In any case, if it means no more autorun on flash drives, removable hard drives and network shares, that is definitely a step in the right direction. Will be interesting to see what malware creators do to get around this ..."

16 of 429 comments (clear)

  1. Erm.....What the hell? by Sj0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why wasn't this the default to begin with? There's no good reason to automatically run anything on media like hard disks or flash drives. It's an obvious virus vector.

    --
    It's been a long time.
    1. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      suddenoutbreakofswineflu
      WTF?

    2. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why wasn't this the default to begin with?

      In the beginning, there was a User.

      This User did not possess the special knowledge of the Priests of the Cult of Computers.

      This User was granted divine Manna from heaven in the form of a shining disc with an outer shell of a transparent horn-like material.

      "Lo!" said he, "I have found the Sacred Tablet of AOL!"

      And he put the Tablet in the Slot of Curious Whirrings, and nothing happened. And this was Good.

      But the User was unhappy, and complained to the Disciples of AOL, that the sacred disc of AOL was defective.

      And so the Disciples of AOL conferred with the Disciples of Borg.

      Now, the Disciples discipled for a while, and determined that the User could never be trusted grok the mysteries of "Drive D". The Disciples agreed, also it was bothersome and unholy, to be summoned each time a Tablet was delivered by divine provenance to another User. And so Autorun was created.

      Verily, the User could place the Sacred Tablet of AOL in the Slot of Curious Whirrings, and without any further discipling by the Disciples, could run AOL.

      And thus were the Demons of AOL unleashed upon the world together with the Lord of PC Plague and Pestilence, he-who-should-not-be-named-but-nevertheless-I-will, Autorun.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    3. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Feanturi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's only if there isn't an autorun.inf pointing to an executable. If there is, it runs that instead of showing the "What do you want to do?" dialog. Only having autorun disabled will protect you from that. What would be good is if it was disabled by default, but could be turned on for select "trusted" flash drives. Or, just a thought, maybe people could learn a bit about how to use a computer and not have to have it do all the driving. Nothing wrong with learning to open an Explorer window, then navigating to a drive to access something on it. What a concept, actually knowing what's on your media. All this "ease of use" and accessibility crap is just making users dumber and dumber.

    4. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by EvanED · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or, just a thought, maybe people could learn a bit about how to use a computer and not have to have it do all the driving. Nothing wrong with learning to open an Explorer window, then navigating to a drive to access something on it. What a concept, actually knowing what's on your media. All this "ease of use" and accessibility crap is just making users dumber and dumber.

      As someone who likes autorun, my reaction to this is "yeah, because I like doing work myself that a computer is good at".

      I think Vista's "always autoplay, never autorun" (if I got those names right) scheme works really well.

    5. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by mooingyak · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're a disciple of AOL.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    6. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Happler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have met people who do not think about toilet paper and they stink. I am a firm believer that people should have at least a basic understanding of what tools they are using. Knowing the basics of windshield wipers means that you can purchase and change them yourself (and pay less in the long run). Knowing the basics of computers means that you will, at least, help minimize the amount of damage you do to your computer via virus, malware, stupid user tricks, etc. I have worked too much tech support to encourage systems that do everything for the user. It just creates more problems then it is worth.

    7. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The best system is one that just does what you want it to do

      Autorun isn't intended to do what users want it to do. Close, but not quite. Autorun is intended to do what ..
      .. .. somebody .. ..
      .. wants it to do. That person is never the user, unless the user wrote the autorun script. That person may have the user's interests at heart.

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    8. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by adisakp · · Score: 5, Informative

      As someone who likes autorun, my reaction to this is "yeah, because I like doing work myself that a computer is good at".

      I think Vista's "always autoplay, never autorun" (if I got those names right) scheme works really well.

      Autorun does work really well... at installing rootkits on your machine from Sony/BMG CD's.

    9. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by Toonol · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As someone who likes autorun, my reaction to this is "yeah, because I like doing work myself that a computer is good at".

      Computers are HORRIBLE at deciding what is safe to run at what isn't. That's the central security problem, and it probably won't be solved until we have strong AI.

    10. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by nicolas.kassis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Humans are HORRIBLE at deciding what is safe to run at what isn't. That's the central security problem, and it probably won't be solved until we have intelligence.

      there fixed that for you

    11. Re:Erm.....What the hell? by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 5, Funny

      Autorun does work really well... at installing rootkits on your machine from Sony/BMG CD's.

      This made me wonder if Sony will now sue Microsoft for producing software that circumvents their copy protection.

  2. Re:get around this? by Swizec · · Score: 5, Funny

    You seem to be implying that there is such a thing as a windows machine without malware ...

  3. It's done right in Ubuntu by Benanov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not sure exactly what's doing it, but in my Ubuntu and gNewSense installs:

    If I insert a CD with autorun files on it or it has an autorun folder, I am prompted that this disc has software on it designed to run automatically, and I am asked what I would like to do about it.

    Seemed to be pretty sensible really. I mean *I* inserted the CD, so I expect something to happen.

    1. Re:It's done right in Ubuntu by EvanED · · Score: 5, Informative

      If I insert a CD with autorun files on it or it has an autorun folder, I am prompted that this disc has software on it designed to run automatically, and I am asked what I would like to do about it.

      That's what Vista does too... I actually really like that behavior. It's almost as convenient as autoplay is, but without the security risk. (Well, for good users.)

    2. Re:It's done right in Ubuntu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The fact that you're using a CD drive as a jewel case pretty much invalidates any opinion you may have on this matter.