Windows 7 – Portable Apps Starter Not Autorunning on Flash Drive

autorunportable-appswindows 7

I'm afraid the answer is "it won't due to new security features", but I'll ask anyway.

I have a USB Flash Drive I run Portable Applications on (who doesn't, right?). I use PStart to start up a nice menu I've been using for a couple years, have my configuration dialed in to something that is productive, so I'm not inclined to just switch to another program.

I have an Autorun.inf in the root of the drive. Its contents:

[Autorun]
Open=Applications\pstart\PStart.exe
Action=Start PortableApps
Icon=Applications\PortableAppsMenu\PortableAppsMenu.exe
Label=PortableApps

When I insert the device on Windows 7, I get prompted to choose from a variety of autostart things I don't want to do:

autorun dialog

It worked fine on XP and Vista, on inserting the PStart.exe would start up and I have menu.

Best Answer

Unfortunately, you're correct.

The new security features of Windows 7 will not run autorun programs unless it's on optical media.

See more here: AutoRun changes in Windows 7.

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