Windows 7: Win 7 Ultimate duplicate User Files: Normal?

Thank you for taking the time to further add to my edification. In spite of the dangers I like to kick the tires, take the radiator out, remove the crankshaft.. just to see what's what... learned a few things in the process without any irreparable damage done so, without the constant presence of a wagging finger under my nose by my Mom or Dad, I am unlikely to change my 'Pride of Ownership' and kicking and poking habits in this lifetime...

As long as you know what's in it. I'm not sure if it even gets processed if/when the system finds it, as it would be when the system sees it on a removable drive.

Sorry, wasn't trying to add. I was still composing that post and didn't see rraod's post by the time I finally posted.

I do the same thing. Best way to learn is to figure it out by tearing it apart and putting it back together.

About the autorun.inf folder in the C: drive, It is a good idea to prevent the viruses and trojans writing another autorun.inf file containing malicious virus programs. If you keep a file with autorun.inf, then the virus will simply overwrite it with it's own autorun.inf file. But it can not overwrite a folder with a file of same name. I also did the same for all my drives, external HDDs and Flash drives. I make sure that the attributes of this autorun.inf folder set to Hidden, System and Read only and remove all the access permissions for further protection. Obviously these folders are empty.

Yes, understand that and have done the same for all externals, but do you know if it's worthwhile to do it on "non-removable" drives? I mean, does the system ever look for or automatically process the autorun.inf on hard drives?

You know, I've looked for the answer to this before. Don't think I ever found it; I never did add it to any of my internals. Can't hurt to add it...

Quote from: Autorun.inf Does Not Work In Windows 7 Anymore

Microsoft has removed the autorun.inf feature from Windows 7. This means that when you insert the USB drive, the programs will not automatically start up. So is this good news or bad news? Spoiler Alert: It is good news!


First lets talk about the good aspects. With autorun.inf you could assign which programs should run automatically when USB drive is inserted, thus, making it easier for the users. This also saves them plenty of steps if the file/program is located deep inside some directory.

For every upside there is an equal downside. But in this case, it seems like autorun.inf has more downsides than upsides. One of the biggest problem of autorun.inf is the virus itself.

If a USB is infected by a virus, the moment you insert it in your computer, your system will get a virus too. The whole process is like a chain reaction. Autorun.inf virus is quite deadly and should not be taken lightly.

So how do we benefit from removing Autorun.inf feature? Lets suppose that you insert a USD drive in your computer running Windows Vista/XP, it will automatically catch the virus since the program(that is infected) will open automatically(if it is configured to open with autorun.inf). Now when you insert the USB drive in your computer running Windows 7 the virus will not come to your computer unless you don’t manually open the drive. Therefore, you will have a chance to scan the drive and clean all viruses before opening it.

Kudos to Microsoft for taking a good step here. We have covered countless ways to prevent Autorun.inf virus, but now thankfully Microsoft have saved the day. This is one of the many improvements Microsoft have made to make Windows 7 more secure.

Remember that Autorun will still work on CD/DVDs, it has just been removed from USB drives.

I used to add this protection to all the drives in Windows XP and now I am not doing it in Windows 7.

I do remember now why I've never done it to my internals: they are in a safe environment.

Still interested in knowing the answer though. Found some info on it, but not definitive...



Another post of mine out of order...