Autorun

Program

The Autorun program launches a program from the CD/DVD-ROM drive (drive D: by default) by reading the file autorun.inf (if present) and obeying the instructions within.  Here is an example of this file:

[autorun]
OPEN=setup.exe
ICON=\Quake3\Quake3.exe

shell\dinstall\command=Quake3\directx7\dxsetup.exe
shell\dinstall=&Install DirectX...

This file is used by Windows to automatically launch a program from the disc when it is inserted into the drive.

The part of the file used by the Autorun program is the OPEN key in the [autorun] section.

This article will show how the program works.  You can download the source code here:

vb_53_autorun.zip (9.12 KB)

This program uses the following ActiveX controls:

• Allen OCX (allenocx.ocx)
• Microsoft Common Dialog Control 6.0 (comdlg32.ocx)
• Directory Dialog Control (dirdlg.ocx)
• Kupex INI Tools 1.0 (iniedit.ocx)

This project contains two Forms and a module.  One Form is displayed to the user if no valid autorun.inf file is present (frmAutorun - Autorun.frm) and the other is used to configure the CD audio and DVD video playing programs (frmConfigure - frmConfigure.frm).  The Startup Object is the Sub Main procedure in the module (mainAutorun - Autorun.bas).

mainAutorun

mainAutorun contains the following code:

The ADrive variable holds the drive letter in the format "D:".  The ARun variable, declared within Sub_Main, will eventually hold the filename of the program to be run.

Firstly, the program checks to see whether the user has run the program with the argument '/c'.  If so, the Configuration Form is displayed and the procedure terminates.

Next, the program checks to see whether the user has run the program with a drive letter as the argument.  If not, 'D:' is used.  The program then has to check whether this drive exists and whether it contains media.  See Allen OCX to see how the DExists function works.

After this, the program uses the Allen OCX function FExists to check whether the drive contains a file called 'track01.cda'.  If it does this means that the disc is an audio CD.  Once this is known, the program can launch the CD playing program.  The CD and DVD playing programs are stored in the registry - as configured using the Configuration Form (see below).   If the CD is not an audio CD, the program checks whether a folder called 'VIDEO_TS' exists.  If so, this is a DVD and the DVD playing program is launched.

If the disc is neither an audio CD or video DVD, the program looks for a file called 'autorun.inf'.  If this exists, the INITool control is used to get the 'open' setting from the file.  If this setting exists and is valid, the program is launched.  Otherwise, the Autorun Form is displayed, which gives the user a choice as to what action to take next:

frmAutorun

The Autorun Form

This Form contains:

• 1 Label control (lblNoINF)
• 1 Allen OCX control (Allen)
• 3 CommandButton controls (Run (Enabled property set to False), Cancel, OD)
• 1 CheckBox (EOR) with Enabled property set to False
• 1 Image control (EXEIcon)
• 1 FileListBox (EXElist) with Pattern property set to "*.exe"

When the Form loads, the Label control (lblNoINF) is set to a message, which tells the user that there was a problem with reading the autorun.inf file on the drive.  If the drive held in the ADrive variable is valid, the FileListBox control (EXEList) control is then set to show .exe files from the drive letter held in the ADrive variable.

When the user clicks on a item in the list, the Run button and CheckBox Enabled properties are set to True.  Also the Image control is set to the icon of the selected .exe file using the GetBigIcon method of the Allen OCX control.

The Run button checks to see whether the file still exists and then executes it.  If the EOR (Exit on Run) CheckBox is checked, the program is unloaded.

The Cancel button unloads the Form.  The OD (Open drive) button open an Explorer window showing the drive contents.

frmConfigure

The Configuration Form

This Form contains:

• 2 Frames (fraDVD, fraCD)
• 5 Label controls (lblDVDEXE, lblDVDSI, lblCDEXE, lblDVDEXE, lblInfo)
• 4 TextBoxes (txtDVDEXE, txtDVDSI, txtCDEXE, txtDVDEXE)
• 5 CommandButtons (Browse1 - 4 with "..." as their caption, cmdClose with "Exit" as its caption)
• Microsoft Common Dialog Control 6.0 (EXE) (CancelError property set to True so that the Cancel button on the 'Open' dialog box generates an error)
• Directory Dialog (DirDlg)

The code in this Form contains two sub procedures, which are there to save duplicating code.  The first one, called EXEget, is used to show the Common Dialog's 'Open' dialog box.  The argument 'txt' is used to specify the TextBox for the resultant filename and 'Desc' specifies the text that will appear in the dialog's caption.  The On Error statement is used so that if the Open dialog's Cancel button is pressed, the error this generates is handled.  The DIRget procedure is used to show the directory dialog box:

The Directory Dialog Box

The 'dir' argument specifies is used to specify the TextBox for the resultant folder path and 'Desc' specifies the text that will appear as the instructions that appear in the dialog box.  The Flags argument for the DirDlg control is set to 17, which means that the item at the top of the folder tree is 'My Computer'.  See the Directory Dialog Control page for the full list of possible Flag values.

The Browse buttons call the EXEget and DIRget procedures.  The Form_Load procedure uses the GetSetting function to retrieve values from the following location in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Martin Allen\Autorun

This is the location used by this program to store the values of the four TextBoxes used on the Form.  When the Form is unloaded, the Form_Unload procedure uses the SaveSetting statement to save the settings back into the registry.  The cmdClose button is used to unload the Form.

Reply by ajay mehta:

hello sir i want to create a program in vb which has the following work.

here in mp3 discs there is an autorun file which run a executable file.when i insert this disc in my cd drive it executes and format my system even system files.this file mostly name called hello.exe and newhello.exe.this file cannot detect by any antivirus.i want to create a program which ask to run autorun file or not by displaying its name.

Answer by Martin Allen:

In order to achieve what you want to do, you can adapt the program in the following way:

1. Download and unzip the project above.

2. Open the project in VB6.

3. Remove frmConfigure and mainAutorun from the project (they are no longer required).

4. Set the Startup Object to frmAutorun in the Project Properties.

5. Add the following to the (General) (Declarations) section.

6. Replace the code in Form_Load() with the following:

Now, when you run the program, you will always see the Autorun form showing the programs available to run on drive D (the default drive).  Use a different drive letter followed by a colon in the command line to show programs on the different drive.  You could create a shortcut for this.

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Martin Allen 1999 - 2012.  Last updated Friday 05 October 2012 06:26:31 PM +0100.