Creating an autorun.ini file?

[Shannon]

I want to burn one of my downloads to a blank CD-R but I want to add an autorun.ini to and run the setup for the software when the CD is put in the drive.

I had a look at an autorun.ini file on one of my CDs that comes with the computer magazine that I by. It had the following:

[autorun]
open=booter.exe

So I'm guessing you change the booter.exe to setup.exe or whatever you want.

First of all, I want to know - to make a Windows Configuration File, can I simply write it out in notepad and change the file extension to .ini? And secondly, by typing out a .ini file, changing that to xxxx.exe, and then burning it with the software - will it work? Or will it need some other hidden file or something?

 

[Pako]

To answer your first question:
Yes, you can type or create a new file in notepad and save it as autorun.ini or simply change the file name after you save it to autorun.ini.

As far as your second question:
I'm really not sure what your asking. Most .exe files are application packages that are written in a program language. Simply typing some command strings in notepad and changing the file extenstion to .exe will not make it an executeable. You can however write batch files in notepad with the file extension .bat to run automatic dos commands within a single file. To create .exe files you need a compiler to do so.

What exactly are you trying to do? Do you already have a .exe that you want to autorun from the CD when it's inserted? Or do you have something else in mind? If the first senario fits you, you don't need anything else on the disk except your autorun.ini file and your setup.exe file.

Your ini file might look like this:

[autorun]
open=setup.exe

Hope this helps...

 

[Shannon]

Yes. I have a download on my computer but I want to get rid of it. I'm thinking of burning it to a blank CD along with an autorun.ini file that way I don't have to open up D:\ to start the installation.

What I mean by my second question is all I need the autorun.ini and installation programs to work or does it require some other kind of file, like a .dll?

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Pako, I think that when Eddy said

And secondly, by typing out a .ini file, changing that to xxxx.exe, and then burning it with the software - will it work?

, what he meant was could he change the "setup.exe" in his example to xxxx.exe, assuming that xxxx.exe was the application he wanted to autorun.

Eddy, yes, I think you've got the gist of it. Create the file autorun.ini using Notepad. Change the name of the file after "open=" to the application you want to autorun. Remember that you'll need the full path if it's in a subdirectory, and that not everyone's CD drive letter is the same, so if the file is in a subdirectory, you should put:

[autorun]
open=.\thefolder\theapp.exe

All you need to do is ensure that the autorun.ini file is in the root directory of the CD you create. You need no other files.

 

[Pako]

If you have a self extracting .exe file, all your should need in your .ini file is the code I mentioned above and the .exe file that it refers to on the cd.

Also note that AUTORUN has to be enabled on the CD-Rom drive for this to work.

I can't see why you would need a Dynamic Link Library file......

 

[Pako]

Thanks for that clarification Giles!

 

[Shannon]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the help guys.