Author Topic: Flash Drive Autorun?  (Read 3770 times)

Offline jcj94

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« on: March 21, 2011, 11:40:27 AM »
You all know how to use notepad?
Well if you have a 1gb or 2gb flash drive here's what you do

Move OP2 (not in a folder, everything in the folder, unless its in a foler INSIDE the op2 folder) into your flash drive.
So your flash drive now has the OP2.exe on the root of the drive.

Now open up Notepad and put this in:
    [autorun]
    Icon=(an icon image file of your choosing on the root of the drive)
    Label=(any name you want it to have)
    ShellExecute=Outpost 2.exe (or any .exe you want that is on the root of the drive)

Save the file, but make sure instead of .txt the file extestion is .inf

There you go, now when you plug in your flash drive, you can play Op2

and Yes CK9, this is possible.  Mounting an .iso to flashdrive I am unsure of yet, because I want to play op1 on the go.

Offline evecolonycamander

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2011, 12:13:11 PM »
gb? you don't need that much... op2 uses VERY little. about 1/3 is needed. and even that leaves TON's of room
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Outpost 2: EoM project status: Re-planning

Offline jcj94

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2011, 12:46:47 PM »
You try and find a 1/3 of a gigabyte flash drive for 1
and Two, try to find a 1 gigabyte flash drive to begin with.

But this is actually how I have Op2 setup on a CD... Except I havn't figured out how to set it for installing (no Idea how to make a setup .exe)

And remember, this isnt JUST for Op2, you can have any program do this.

I mean, If I can figure out how to make a setup file work, then I would be very happy.

 

Offline BlackBox

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #3 on: April 02, 2011, 09:38:08 PM »
I'm not sure that autorun.inf on a flash drive will work, since flash drives appear as "removable hard drives" to the system. (It works for CDs and that is how those U3 "launchpad" drives would work, by appearing as two USB mass storage devices, a CD drive and a hard drive).

As far as OP1 goes, you could probably just extract the contents of the ISO to the flash drive, or install it somewhere on the drive and then copy everything to the flash drive.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2011, 09:38:51 PM by BlackBox »

Offline jcj94

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #4 on: April 02, 2011, 09:41:24 PM »
I actually have an INF file on my flash drive...

Really all I do with it (seeing as it's a 16gig) is set an Icon and a Label for it.

If I could learn more I could see if there is a way to add more Autorun options.

NOTE: Windows 7 likes to Ignore INF/ autorun files on flash drive for a reason. It takes it as a security threat (after all, it might autostart a function that crashes your computer).

Offline BlackBox

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2011, 09:47:19 PM »
Quote
NOTE: Windows 7 likes to Ignore INF/ autorun files on flash drive for a reason. It takes it as a security threat (after all, it might autostart a function that crashes your computer).
This has been a feature since vista, if an autorun.inf is present it will ask you what you want to do as opposed to just starting a program. (And the automatic start I don't think works on non CD devices still or is even presented as a valid option).

icon= and label= still work but any of the commands that execute a program are ignored unless it's optical media.

Offline jcj94

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2011, 09:50:04 PM »
Vista? Hmmm.. Well, my moms comp never ignored it.

I hate vista, I am so glad 7 came out.
 

Offline Spikerocks101

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2011, 09:51:11 PM »
to be honest, vista worked just as well for me as windows 7...
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Offline BlackBox

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2011, 09:59:28 PM »
From the wikipedia page:
Quote
From Windows Vista, the AutoPlay system is integrated into every aspect of media handling and there is no automatic execution of the AutoRun task.
e.g. the "what do you want to do with this media" box will still appear but it won't automatically run the program on the device.

Please stay on topic, I don't see why this needs to turn into a vista vs 7 argument. (Vista is only as horrible as you make it out to be, I never had issues with it)

Offline jcj94

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Flash Drive Autorun?
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2011, 10:01:53 PM »
I honestly don't like it because it used a lot more processing power than XP did.  It tries to run a lot of things in the backround (like uTorrent/ WinMediaPlayer/ Teamviewer/ Live Mesh/ C++ Compiling/ Download) eve when you had them open in main screen.

I hated waiting for a download to get done while listening to music and Doing Java Code on the robot.

I still prefer XP all in all, and that's why I did this little tutorial, for XP users more so.

the autorun file I use at school to label it because you don't have privliges to edit .inf files on the school comps, that and If they delete it, you can't rename the flashdrive with the backup name of JAMESDRIV.  It just makes me feel like I have something a little safer, and a little more personalized.