Raymond.CC Blog

If you didn’t know, Microsoft Windows does not allow you to autorun USB drives when they are inserted. The Windows Autorun capabilities are restricted to CD-ROM drives and fixed disk drives. No, there are no registry hacks to enable USB drives autorun feature because of security issues. Data theft is one security concern for example. The simplicity of reading and writing to basic USB drives and the reasonable amount of data they can hold makes them an ideal target for this.

Usually when you plug in your USB flash drive, you’ll get a notification asking you what would you like to do.

If your end “Explorer.exe” process, and you plug in your USB flash drive, you won’t even get the prompt. Usually computers that are used for giving exams won’t have “explorer.exe” loaded and that can prevent you from copying the exam data out.

Anyway, if you still would like to automatically launch the program of your choice on your USB Flash Drive everytime you plug it in your computer, then please continue reading. There is a way to make Windows autorun USB flash drives.


Since Windows does not allow flash drive to automatically auto execute any programs, we’ll turn to 3rd party software to do that. I found a few and here is what I have to say about it.

1. AutoRun USB

If you visit AutoRun USB official website now, they no longer offering free version of AutoRun USB. Their latest version of AutoRun USB is version 4 and it cost $4.99. But if you don’t mind using their first version of AutoRun USB, then you can use it for FREE. One thing I don’t like about AutoRun USB is it recognizes autorun.usb instead of autorun.inf. Why don’t they make it standard? You need to manually copy the autorun.usb from C:\Program Files\AutoRun USB to the root of your USB flash drive and edit it with notepad.

[ Download AutoRun USB v1.0 ]

2. BusRunner

If you think AutoRun USB is bad, this is even worst! First of all, I can’t find anything about BusRunner on the official website. Looks like they’ve removed it for good! Next, after installing BusRunner, I see an icon appear at your tray bar. When I plug in my USB flash drive, I can right click on the icon to set the default program to run when it’s plugged in. After I did that, I wasn’t able to safely remove my USB flash drive. I get the error message “Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device. The device ‘Generic volume’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.” No matter how long I wait, I still won’t be able to safely eject my USB flash drive. The only safe way to eject my USB flash drive is to close BusRunner first, then only I am able to safely remove my USB flash drive. Oh, and BusRunner also doesn’t recognize Autorun.inf. It uses BusRunner.cfg file at the root of your USB flash drive.

[ Download BusRunner ]

3. APO USB Autorun

This is the best if compared with the first two software to can make Windows autorun USB flash drives. APO USB Autorun recognizes the standard autorun.inf (as used with CDs) and executes it. If you don’t know how to write autorun.inf file, this software includes an autorun.inf builder. In addition to the autorun functionality, the program also allows you to quickly access the files on the USB drive(s) from the tray icon menu. APO USB Autorun now comes with plugins to backup/restore folder upon drive insertion.

[ Download APO USB Autorun ]