JSI Tip 6952. AutoFix freeware can fix problems with Windows XP Autoplay.

The AutoFix.exe utility was written by a member of the Microsoft Windows Shell team, and is designed to inspect and optionally fix problems that it encounters with the Windows XP Autoplay settings.

Download and unzip AutoFix.zip. When you double-click AutoFix.exe, it will inspect your Autoplay settings and offer a Repair button to allow you to reset them to mostly default settings.

When finished, you can press the Open Log button to inspect a log file with the results of the inspection and any repair steps. The log file, in your My Documents folder, has the following name format:

AutoFix_YYYY_MM_DD_HH_MM_SS.txt

Here is a sample log from a working system:

AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67]
Time [2003-07-08 11:01:29]
Microsoft Windows Version [5.1 (Service Pack 1) <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 [E:\, Drive Type: 5]:
    Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
    Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
    Result [HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present}
    Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent}
    Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent}
    Result [HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Absent}
    Result [Driver level policies]: OK {
        HKLM\...\Services\cdrom!Autorun (Present) <Allows>
        HKLM\...\Services\cdrom\Parameters!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
        HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysEnable (Absent) <Not set>
        HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysDisable (Absent) <Not set> }

Test [Drive Notification] - Instance [E:\, Drive Type: 5]:
        Status: {
        01 00 01 00 00 
        01 00 DF DF 5F 
        01 00 01 01 EE 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF FF FF FF FF 
        FF 
        DT: [0x00000020], CT: [0x00000009] }
    Result [Legacy Notification]: OK
    Result [AutoPlay V2 Notification]: OK {
        Service (Fired)
        Shell (Triggered) }

Test [User Settings] - Instance [E:]:
    Result [User preferences are set to the factory default (failure is OK).]: OK

>> Required action: No problems were found -> None