Autorun Menu, What is it?

An Autorun Menu is the list of items presented to the user in the Context menu, (Right mouse click) on the CD in Explorer or My Computer. This menu, its items and the functions that they perform are defined in the Autorun.inf file.

This section describes the configuration of the Autorun.inf file that creates menu items.

TERMINOLOGY:	DEFINITION:
Context menu	Or popup menu, is the menu displayed when the user selects (right mouse click) the cd drive icon in Explorer or My Computer.
Keyword	Defines the item to be added to the Popup or Context menu and defines the item that an action is to be taken.
Keyword modifier	Keyword modifier distinguishing the Popup or Context menu item from others.
Shell	The root of the command that specifies both the display of a Popup or Context menu item and its action.
Hotkey	Placement of the ampersand (&) defines the hotkey or access key for the menu item. The next character adjacent to the ampersand will be the hot key. A hot key is not required. Note: Be careful to select unique hotkeys. Any duplication will result in the second instance being null.

EXAMPLE AUTORUN FILE:	DEFINITION:
[autorun]	The flag used to signify the start of the Autorun procedures. All autorun instructions follow this flag.
open=filename.exe /argument1	An instruction to the system to open the program called filename.exe in the current directory passing in argument1 as the supplied parameter.
icon=\foldername\filename.dll,5	This command sets the icon of the drive that the autorun CD is inserted into. Windows is instructed to set the CD-ROM icon as the 5th icon found within the filename.dll library.
shell\install = &Install	shell\install = &Install Shell is the keyword to define the item to be added to the Popup or Context menu. \install is the keyword modifier distinguishing the Popup or Context menu item from others. &Install is the value defining the text to be displayed in the Popup menu. The ampersand preceding Install, defines the Hotkey for that item.
shell\install\command = setup.exe	shell\install\command is the keyword defining that an action is to be taken. setup.exe is the value defining the action to be taken when the user selects the item in the Popup menu.
shell\uninstall = &UnInstall	Additional Popup menu examples: Uninstall runs an uninstall application
shell\uninstall\command = Uninstall.exe
shell\readme = &Read Me	Readme displays a readme file using notepad passing the filename readme.txt as an argument.
shell\readme\command = notepad readme.txt
shell\help = &Help	Help displays a helpfile using the default registration of winhelp
shell\help\command = helpfilename.hlp
Note: Each of the shell keywords are followed by a unique modifier distinguishing each context menu items and providing an id association to their action.

About Autorun:

Turning Autorun ON/OFF

Glossary