Programming Forums - View Single Post - Auto-Start USB

desnotes · May 29th, 2006, 10:57 AM

I am working on an open source project that starts a Linux OS installed on an USB drive as a guest on top of a Windows or Linux host OS. One of the issues I am researching is getting th USB drive to autostart when it is plugged into a Windows XP host. From what I have found, there is way to make Windows think the USB is a CDROM by creating a partition that is read-only and sets certain flags. It is used on several USB drives (Geek Squad is an example) now to start menus and such but there is little information abou it and no code examples. I have tried Google.

I would like to know if anyone has any info on this and how to go about writing a program to accomplish this. I am fairly proficient in C++ but most o my programming is done with script/web languages.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,

desNotes

May 29th, 2006, 10:57 AM	#1
desnotes Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Auto-Start USB I am working on an open source project that starts a Linux OS installed on an USB drive as a guest on top of a Windows or Linux host OS. One of the issues I am researching is getting th USB drive to autostart when it is plugged into a Windows XP host. From what I have found, there is way to make Windows think the USB is a CDROM by creating a partition that is read-only and sets certain flags. It is used on several USB drives (Geek Squad is an example) now to start menus and such but there is little information abou it and no code examples. I have tried Google. I would like to know if anyone has any info on this and how to go about writing a program to accomplish this. I am fairly proficient in C++ but most o my programming is done with script/web languages. Any Ideas? Thanks, desNotes