Can't play dvd's - AutoPlay isn't available anymore

For some unknown reason, I am having trouble playing dvd's on my computer. Before my problems started, I had zero troubles playing a disc. I would pop in the disc, and be able to play/activate the movie one of several ways. For instance, as soon as the disc went in, a pop-up screen would say autoplay - and it would offer a few different ways to play the dvd. Or the other main way, I would click once on the dvd drive just to highlight it, then I would go up to one of the toolbars and click the button "AutoPlay", which would open up a drop-down list and I would select what player I wanted to use.

Here's a screen-cap, showing the AutoPlay button as missing:




Well, none of that is working now. Now when I insert a disc, Windows doesn't give me anyway to play the movie. There's no more pop-ups, and the AutoPlay button is just not available. The only buttons that toolbar offers me -
Organize
Eject
Burn to disc
Properties
System Properties
etc...

Where the word "Eject" appears, is where the AutoPlay button always used to be. I also tried right clicking on the dvd drive to bring up the Context Menu, even that doesn't help - because I used to be able to right click and choose the option "Open With" and select a movie player (ie. VLC, MPC, WMP, etc...), but now thats gone too.

I know the dvd drive works, because I can still play dvd's if I go into Windows Media Player and play the movie thru that backdoor way.

I don't know exactly what caused this problem, but I have a few general ideas. Over the past 5 days I been adjusting my RAM timing & voltage settings. I also just did a successfull Update of my BIOS, and installed the most current version of the BIOS - and that flashing went well with no problems. I checked my dvd Drives drivers, and they are all up to date. I also just installed, less than a week ago, a new internal 2TB Hitachi Hard Drive.

Now, I have tried to resolve my problem on my own, with no success. So, let me explain everything I've tried thus far:

I tried to "reset all defaults" - in the Control Panel, AutoPlay section.
I've got the "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices" box selected with a check mark and for all of the other options, I have set "Ask me everytime"

Then I located Shell Hardware Detection (from Services console), and made sure that the “Service Status” is Running, and “Startup Type” is Automatic.
It is running, here's a screen-cap:




Made sure that CD-ROM AutoRun is not disabled in registry - under this subkey section:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
It is enabled, here's a screen-cap:




I also read somewhere that I should make sure that the correct NoDriveTypeAutoRun and/or NoDriveAutoRun policy value is set - for this subkey section:
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

But there wasn't any registry key for "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" - under this subkey section:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Here's a screen-cap:




And this where I get lost. I read that I should change one of the entries of the "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" - under this different subkey section:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
But there are two entries. So, which one of those entries do I touch. Secondly, what should I change it too?
Here's a screen-cap:

What program do you want to play them with? If I'm not mistaken you can change an option in whatever program you use to automatically play upon inserting a disk. You may want to check there.
If worst comes to worst and that doesn't do anything, you can always add a shortcut to the program on your desktop.

I normally play dvd's with Media Player Classic and Windows Media Player, and yeah I can still play dvd's through that backdoor way.
But I need my computer back to the way it was before. I can right click on the dvd drive and open the Context Menu - but the Autoplay option is gone and I no longer have the "Open With" option available either.

Hell, I even tried to do a System Restore, but even that didn't work. I keep getting a error message saying that Restore didn't work because it failed to extract this file:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0\0x0407.ini

So, I booted into safe mode and I deleted every single Adobe Premiere Elements file on my pc. Then I tried to do system restore again, this time from safe mode - but restore still didn't work. I keep getting the same error message.

I really do feel like I could solve all my problems, if I could get System Restore to work correctly. Can you help me do that?




What about this idea also - When I right click the dvd drive and open the Context Menu, there's an option to "Format" - should I click that, to Format my dvd drive?

I got autoplay to finally start working, here's what I did:

I went to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

and deleted both NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Here's a screen-cap of what I deleted:




Then, I went to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

and added - NoDriveTypeAutoRun 0×00000091 (145)

Here's a screen-cap of what I added:




So as far as the Autoplay issue is concerned - I'm fine now since it's fixed.
But I still need help with fixing this system restore issue. Can someone please help me get system restore working properly. Thanks

Well, my same problem is back again and I don't have a clue what caused this to happen again. I have done absolutely nothing to my pc, that might explain this repeat issue. I haven't downloaded anything, I haven't altered any computer settings - I haven't done any system restores, so I'm baffled here.
And the steps I took last time, to fix this Autoplay issue, are no longer working. To fix this issue the first time - as you know, I went into the registry and deleted two specific keys from HKCU & I added that one specefic key to HKLM. Well, I just checked those parts of the registry and my initial fix is still in place. Those two files are still gone and that one file is still in place - just like they are supposed to be. So, why isn't my autoplay working, because the registry is exactly the way it should be (I double and triple checked this time).
And I'm telling you, I did nothing to cause this - last night everything was working fine, and as soon as I turned on my pc this morning; surprise, Autoplay problem is back again, and with the usual fixes not working now.

What the heck is going on?

Nope, that doesn't help. My Autoplay is still broken

Well, autoplay started working again, even though I did absolutely nothing to fix it. Then I had to turn off my computer, because I was leaving the house for awhile - and guess what, when I got home and turned my pc back on, the damn autoplay problem was back again.

It's like my computer can't make up its mind. Why does the autoplay issue keep coming and going, even without me changing a single thing on my pc, in between the "working & not working status".

This is really strange.