AutoPlay keeps turning itself on

I have Win7 ultimate x32 in a tower. I have all the AutoPlay devices set to Take No Action in Control Panel. Up above, I have Use Autoplay for all media and devices unchecked.

About twice a week I have to go back and uncheck that last setting again. Something is causing it to be checked. The individual settings never move from Take no action, however because of the master setting becoming checked I get unwanted Autoplay dialogs when a new drive is attached to the machine, which is pretty often.

Any ideas what is causing this, and more importantly, how to turn AP off for good?

Thanks,
Paul

Thanks, Tookeri. I had seen Shawn's tute, but thought I had it covered already. I've downloaded the .reg for all drives / all users and employed it. We'll see if it makes a difference.

BW,
Paul

No, it still came back.

Just to thicken the stew, I also have a problem with my power schemes resetting the monitor shut off time period. I even created a new power scheme to start afresh, yet every once in a while it will revert from 45 minutes back to 20 minutes. Something is at work here.

I think I solved this. It occurred to me that there might be a Scheduled Task changing settings. Sure enough, I found a "power diagnostics" under MS/Windows that was set to fire every 14 days. Don't know how it got there, and never heard of it before. This is a Vista Biz box upgraded to Win7 Ult. It's been about a week now and no gremlins yet.

Every time I run some program it warns me that it could cause problems, requiring administrative "confirmation" giving an illusion of security. Yet there are so many start-points where programs/services/processes can start from undetected and apparently no admin permission is needed for that?

I came here seeking to turn off Autoplay (which has turned itself on repeatedly after I've disabled it) And now I discover a Task Scheduler only to find that there several things in there which shouldn't be, some from Google and Apple. I disabled Power Diagnostics as paul1149 mentioned. Not sure if it'll solve the problem, will see.

Hiding extensions for known file types, and Autorun are best friends of viruses. Is it too much to ask from an OS to STOP behaving like a malware? Just don't run anything that I don't need, and allow ME to decide this. Limit the use of internet to ONLY restricted programs. I don't see why I need to even run a software Firewall. Internet is a special permission that should only be limited to select few programs/processes.

It's becoming progressively more and more difficult to control Windows. Is there a 3rd party software that can do this on my behalf and close all these vulnerabilities?

seven1124 said:

Hiding extensions for known file types, and Autorun are best friends of viruses. Is it too much to ask from an OS to STOP behaving like a malware? Just don't run anything that I don't need, and allow ME to decide this. Limit the use of internet to ONLY restricted programs. I don't see why I need to even run a software Firewall. Internet is a special permission that should only be limited to select few programs/processes.

It's becoming progressively more and more difficult to control Windows. Is there a 3rd party software that can do this on my behalf and close all these vulnerabilities?

Hiding filename extensions by default will go down as the worst decision ever by any software maker, despite MS having done its best to provide some serious runners-up. It is an absolute disaster.

Restricting internet to only certain progs can probably be easily done in the firewall; not sure, haven't ever tried it. Certainly third party firewalls will do this for you.

If you're looking for more user control, in my opinion MS is moving in exactly the opposite direction. They made their fortune catering to corporations, who don't want plebe user control, and to users who just want to push a button and get on the internet.

There is a safe and simple third party solution: Linux.

Agree, MS is moving in exactly the opposite direction, the direction pioneered by Apple I believe. I have nothing against ultra-simple user interface/OS, in fact I think it's the best way to make technology accessible to widest audience. However, there should be a central control point, for those who require it. How a serious corporation can trust such chaotic OS is beyond me.

Win7 comes with built-in software firewall. It has a very good interface and White List mode where you can grant access to specific programs (executable files), but it fails to operate so straightforwardly for certain programs... And, most annoyingly, there's no way to back up/restore the rule settings to apply it to other machines or after OS reinstall.

My main issue with switching to Linux is Application compatibility. As many software that I use are not compatible or don't run efficiently in virtual modes.

Another option, Mac OS, which "promises" to be more secure, is even harder to control or monitor, and you're left with simply trusting it. It's even more dominant than MS in its approach. That is, if it's doing something a certain way it's MUCH harder to "convince" it to do otherwise. And to add to the pain, it has the worst community of all! Whenever you have a problem it seems, most common "solution" is to change your mind and way of thinking and to accept things as they are.