Disable AutoRun Feature to Protect your Windows Computer

In the last few weeks, a malicious worm called Conficker has exploited a critical flaw in Windows operating system infecting at least 9 million PCs, and is spreading rapidly across numerous corporate networks worldwide.

Conficker worm first disables system services like Windows Automatic Update, Windows Error Reporting, etc. and then downloads additional malware by connecting to a web server. The worm also attaches itself to certain Windows processes such as svchost.exe, explorer.exe and services.exe, every time you turn on your computer.

Your Windows System can be prevented from getting infected with Conficker worm by disabling the AutoRun feature.

To effectively disable AutoRun in Microsoft Windows, import the following registry value:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\IniFileMapping\Autorun.inf]
@="@SYS:DoesNotExist"

To import the above value, perform the following steps:

1) Copy the text
2) Paste the text into Windows Notepad
3) Save the file as autorun.reg and double-click on the file to import it into the Windows registry

Microsoft Windows can also cache the AutoRun information from mounted devices in the MountPoints2 registry key. It is recommended to restart Windows after making the registry change so that any cached mount points are reinitialized in a way that ignores the Autorun.inf file. Alternatively, the following registry key may be deleted:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
\MountPoints2