Recently we removed a virus from a PC at the computer shop and after a week the customer brought it back in because Auto Play had stopped working. Since a virus had been removed and Microsoft Security Essentials installed I assumed something in the process of one of those tasks messed up auto play. Fixing the problem is really easy using the Auto Play Repair Wizard which can be downloaded from Microsoft. Follow the directions below to resolve Auto Play not working on Windows XP.
Fix Auto Play On Windows XP:
- Download Auto Play Repair Wizard: Click here to download the Auto Play Repair Wizard from the Microsoft Download Center. The file downloaded will be called AutoFix.exe.
- Run Auto Play Repair Wizard: Now double click on the AutoFix.exe file you just downloaded from Microsoft to begin the Auto Play repair process. The initial Auto Play Repair Wizard screen looks like the below.
- Auto Play Repair Wizard Global Checks: Click the Next button from the initial Microsoft Auto Play Repair Wizard screen to complete the Auto Play Global Checks as shown below.
The two items that the Auto Play Repair Wizard will check include verifying that the Shell Hardware Detection service is set to auto start and verifying that the Shell Hardware Detection is running.
- Auto Play Specific Drive: After clicking the Next button again the Auto Play Repair Wizard will display all of the drives on the computer so you can select a specific drive with an issue as shown below. Likely the Auto Play function has stopped working on every drive so you will likely have to follow the steps in this article for each drive you want Auto Play to function properly on. In this example we choose the primary DVD drive followed by clicking the Next button.
- Auto Play Repair Wizard Policy Checks: After clicking the Next button above the Auto Play Repair Wizard will verify the policy for the drive you have selected as shown in the below example image.
As you can see in the above example image the Auto Play Repair Wizard has determined there is an issue with the Local Computer Policy.
- Repair Auto Play Local Computer Policy: Click the Repair button to fix the Local Computer Policy Auto Play issue which will display “Repaired” if Auto Play is repaired properly as shown below.
Once Auto Play has been repaired for this drive click the Next button to continue.
- View Auto Play Repair Wizard Log: After clicking Next above the Auto Play Repair Wizard will be completed however you can view the log before closing the Auto Play Repair Wizard. An example Microsoft Auto Play Repair Wizard log is displayed below.
- AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67]
- Time [2010-11-24 11:20:15]
- Microsoft Windows Version [5.1 (Service Pack 3) <2600>]
- Test [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.] - Instance [N/A]:
- Result [AutoStart Setting]: OK
- Result [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.]: OK
- Test [Policies] - Instance [D:\, Drive Type: 5]:
- Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Present}
- Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Present}
- Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present}
- Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Present}
- Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: Problems {Present}
- Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present}
- >> Repair << [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun] Step: Resetting policy HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer!NoDriveAutorun to 0x03FFFFB7. Result: This AutoPlay setting was successfully fixed. >> Required action: The user must log off and log on again
You can view the above log by clicking the Open Log button which is located on the final window of the Microsoft Auto Play Repair Wizard as shown in the below example image.
- Log Off & Test Auto Play: Now log off the current user on the computer and then log back on so you can test Auto Play for the drive Auto Play was repaired for. You can do this by inserting in a DVD or CD into the drive to verify that some form of wizard opens or a folder opens with all of the files on the CD or DVD.
- Repeat Auto Play Wizard: If the above steps were successful for the single drive you should repeat all of the steps for each drive that you want Auto Play to work on which includes Auto Play for USB cameras, Auto Play for the iPhone, etc.
Keep in mind that Auto Play is a security risk since it allows things to execute automatically without any interaction however it is convenient for most users so be careful to not enable it for drives where it is not necessary.
