Steps:
- Specify program to run
- Set a label
- Select icon
- Set context menu items and commands
- Preview the file
- Save the file
The first step is to select the program you
want to have start automatically when the CD is put into the
drive. This program will need to be located somewhere on the
CD. When you select the program the Autorun.inf Editor will
put only the filename into the box (it will not include any
path information). This will be fine if you plan to have the
program in the "root" of the CD (i.e. you will not
have the file in a subfolder).
If you plan to have the file in a subfolder
on the CD then you need to add the path information yourself
to the text box.
Note: When specifying folders on the CD you
need make sure it is a relative path, not an absolute path.
To make it a path relative to the CD put a".\" in
the front (as in the screen shot). For
more information on relative vs. absolute paths click here.
If instead of running a program you would like
to automatically open a document or web page when the CD is
inserted, you can use a small helper program that is packaged
with the Autorun.inf Editor. The helper program is called
"opener.exe". By using the program you can easily
open html files (or web sites) or other documents that the
autorun.inf "open" command cannot handle. To use
the program, add "opener.exe" to the program line
followed by the document or site you want to open.
In the screenshot above I am using opener.exe to open the
Moon Valley website.
Note: When you are ready to burn the CD, make sure
you put the opener.exe file onto the CD. Also be sure to specify
the correct relative path for the opener.exe file (where its
located on the CD) and for the document you want to open (relative
to the opener.exe file). For example, if I wanted to open
an excel spreadsheet that I had in a subfolder on my CD, I
would type "opener.exe .\MyDocuments\MyFinances.xls"
However, if I also placed the opener.exe file in the "MyDocuments"
subfolder then I would add the line ".\MyDocuments\opener.exe
MyFinances.xls" The path for the opener.exe file is relative
to the CD, and the path for the document is relative to the
opener.exe file.
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Now that the program has been selected we can
add a label for our CD. This is a text label which will be
seen in My Computer and Explorer (in Windows).
Note: labels do not function correctly on
Windows XP systems. The label does not show up and neither
will the icon. If you expect your CD to be used on Windows
XP computers you may not want to specify a label.
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Next specify an icon. This icon will be used
to represent the CD drive. If the icon you want to select
is part of an exe or dll file, first select the file. Then
in the pull down window select the index number for the specific
icon you want.
In this screenshot I selected the Microsoft
Word executable file and picked the 4th icon.
Remember, the icon file you specify must be
located on the CD when the CD is burned. For more information
about specifying the location of the file on the CD, see the
section above which talks about specifying the program file.
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Lastly, you can specify up to two context menu
items. The context menu is when you right click on the CD
and the little menu pops up. You can add entries to this menu,
such as Install or Readme or whatever you want. First specify
what you want to appear on the menu, then specify the action
that will happen when the user selects it. For example, if
you want to add an "Install" item which will run
an installation executable called "setup.exe" you
would enter:
When someone right clicks on the CD the context
menu will appear with the new entry:
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Once you have specified everything you want
to include, you can click on the preview button to preview
the contents of your autorun.inf file.
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When you have finished, click the save button
to save your autorun.inf file. This file will also need to
be burned onto the CD. (Note: this file cannot be located
in a subfolder)
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