Enable USB Flash Autorun in Windows 8 with APUSB 47

The autorun feature in Windows has been heavily misused by malicious application to such an extent that Microsoft finally decided to disable it in Windows 7 and later in Windows 8. If you are using any of these versions of Windows and you insert a USB flash disk with autorun.inf file designed to launch a program, then Windows will simple ignore it. In addition, almost all antivirus programs have also become cautious about autorun.inf files. So what can you do if you really want to have the autorun feature enabled for removable USB drives in your Windows PC? You can use the free APUSB 47 program that adds the autorun feature once again to Windows 7 and Windows 8 for USB drives.

You can get the APUSB 47 program from the LeeluSoft website. The program in designed to work specifically on Windows 7 (the “47” in the program’s title means “for Windows 7”), but it works without any problems in Windows 8 too. During the installation, the program tries to download and install unwanted software, so keep your eyes open through the setup process.

It sits in the system tray and watches for the newly inserted USB disks in your Windows PC. When it detects a new USB disk, it looks for autorun.inf file in its root folder and takes action for the open= entry. For example, if you have an autorun.inf file that looks like the one shown in the following snapshot, it will open the trishtech.txt file.

Enable USB Autorun with APUSB 47You can double-click on the APUSB 47 system tray icon and see the main window interface. From this window, you can also choose to enable auto-start option for APUSB 47 so that it can automatically start with Windows. There is also an option that makes it ask for confirmation before quitting.

Enable USB Autorun with APUSB 47

Of course, you are taking a big risk when enabling autorun feature in Windows. There is a reason why it was disabled in Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you insert a USB disk containing infected or malicious autorun.inf, then it can cause damage to your system. It is advised that you disable or close this application when you do not expect to use it.

Conclusion: LeeluSoft APUSB 47 re-enables the autorun feature for removable USB disk drives in Windows 7 and 8. It simply watches for the autorun.inf files in the root folder of USB disks and launches the appropriate programs. But this also brings back the security risks related to malicious  or infected autorun.inf files.

You can download APUSB 47 from http://leelusoft.blogspot.com/.