HOWTO: Enable Autorun for Applications Distributed on CD- ROM

ID: Q172078

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 both support the Autorun feature for CD-ROMS. The Autorun feature detects when a CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive and runs an application based on the contents of the Autorun.inf file located on the CD.

A common use of this Autorun feature is to launch an application's setup when the CD is inserted. This article outlines the process of enabling this feature for a Visual FoxPro application.


MORE INFORMATION

When a CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive, the operating system checks for a file named Autorun.inf in the root directory of the CD. This file contains a pointer to an executable file named Autorun.exe.

The following Autorun.inf file was taken from the Windows 95 CD: 


   [autorun]
   OPEN=AUTORUN\AUTORUN.EXE
   ICON=AUTORUN\WIN95CD.ICO
The OPEN= entry indicates the location of the Autorun.exe file, and the ICON= entry indicates the icon used to represent the CD-ROM drive in the Windows Explorer.

To create an Autorun.inf file that launches a Visual FoxPro setup routine, you must first create the distribution set using the Setup Wizard.

Once the distribution set has been created, rename Setup.exe to Autorun.exe, and rename Setup.lst to Autorun.lst.

Create a new text file named Autorun.inf with the following contents: 

   [autorun]
   OPEN=AUTORUN.EXE
Place this file and all the files from the distribution set in the root directory of the CD.

When the CD is inserted into the CD-ROM drive, the application's setup should be launched.


REFERENCES

For additional information, please see the following article(s) in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q152395 HOWTO: Using Setup Wizard to Distribute VFP App on CD-ROM
Q136214 HOWTO: Test Autorun.inf Files

Additional query words: 


Keywords          : kbsetup kbVFp500 kbVFp600 
Version           : 
Platform          : 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: July 27, 1999