Every time I place a CD in my computer's CD-Rom drive, it automatically runs and prompts me for an action. How can I switch this off, as it tends to get rather annoying?

Sure, this is quite easy to do:

  1. Go to your computer's desktop and double-click on the "My Computer" icon.
  2. Right-click on the CD-Rom drive icon.
  3. Select "Properties".
  4. Click on the "AutoPlay" tab.
  5. Select the file type from the drop-down menu.
  6. Select the action you want Windows to perform when you insert a CD in the drive. If you don't want Windows to perform any function, select "Take no Action".
  7. Do step 5 and 6 over for each file type until you've set the desired action for each file type.
  8. Click on OK.

If, however, you want to toggle AutoPlay on and off on a per-CD-basis, then there is a shortcut key you could also use to temporarily override all your settings for the CD-Rom drive and force Windows not to perform any action.

When you insert the CD, hold the Shift-key down while you press the button that will retract the CD-drive into the computer and hold it pressed down for about 10 seconds, or until the CD-Rom drive has finished spinning up the disc and its clear that no action has been performed.

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