I have said in the past that the easiest way to make video 
presentations on CD would be to use HTML and create an CD. 
I have experimented with this, but never tried to make the 
CD autoload upon insertion, thinking this was a no-brainer. 
This apparently is not the case.

I looked at the code in the .ini files of cd's that autoload, 
and I thought all I had to do is point it to the main HTML 
file on the CD, but it wants to see an APPLICATION, not a file.

Anybody have any experience with this? 

Thanks.

THIS IS A CRUDELY COPY AND PASTED HTML FILE FROM THE LINK
GO TO THE LINK. THERE ARE PICTURES and MORE URLS...
...GOOD LUCK... I'm just getting into this too.


Autoplay - Introduction
CD-ROM was first introduced to replace the large numbers of 
floppy disks which had become necessary to install software 
such as Microsoft Office. A user had to insert a CD-ROM into 
the drive and then run a command, usually setup.exe or 
install.exe, to start the installation.

With the introduction of Windows 95, a new feature called 
AutoPlay enabled programs to be automatically run and was 
intended to make CDs easier to use. It also enabled audio CDs 
to be played.

Equipment to create CDs was initially very expensive but now 
prices have dropped to several hundred pounds and CD-ROM 
writers are often used to create backups or to store files 
that are accessed directly from CD-ROM without having to be 
installed onto hard disk. Increasingly, CD is a medium for 
storing HTML web pages and other files such as spreadsheet, 
word processing, presentation, audio, video, graphics and 
help (for example Microsoft's winhelp and HTML Help).

AutoPlay works in Windows 95 by looking at the CD, or CD-ROM, 
that the user inserts. If it's an audio CD then it is played 
but if it is a CD-ROM that contains an AUTORUN.INF file in 
the root directory then the instructions in this are run.

Autorun - Limitations
AUTORUN.INF allows only programs, files that end in .exe or 
.com, to be run. AutoPlay was never intended to be used to 
automatically run other files, such as .htm, but StarterFile 
enables this limitation to be overcome.

AutoPlay was also only intended to work with CD-ROM but it 
can be made to work with other media such as floppy disks and 
Iomega zip drives and this is explained later.

Autorun - Example
A typical AUTORUN.INF file to install software would be located 
in the root directory of the CD and contain three lines in text 
format (ASCII) like this:
[autorun]
open=setup.exe
icon=setup.exe


Setup.exe would be expected to be found in the root 
directory of the CD.


-----------------------------------------------------

StarterFile - Example
StarterFile is written to the CD-ROM along with AUTORUN.INF 
and enables any file to be launched, including HTML web pages.

A typical AUTORUN.INF file that includes StarterFile to launch 
the file welcome.htm would contain two lines in text format 
(ASCII) like this:
[autorun]
open=starterfile.exe start.htm


Autorun.inf, starterfile.exe and welcome.htm should all be 
written to the root directory of the CD.


---------------------------------------------------
Examples to write to CD
Create a CD-ROM which contains these three files in the 
root directory
1 autorun.inf (1KB)
2 start.htm (13KB)
3 Evaluation copy of starterfile.exe (208KB) See details

On loading the CD-ROM start.htm should be displayed in 
your default browser.

Rather than write a CD-ROM you could test using a floppy 
disk or zip cartridge.


----------------------------------------------------

StarterFile - Evaluation version
This version is intended for evaluation purposes. After the 
file you have specified is launched the following message 
appears


"Unregistered version for evaluation purposes only, www.trah.co.uk/starterfile"

Create a directory, then download StarterFile evaluation 
version. (208KB) 

----------------------------

Testing using floppy disk or Iomega zip cartridge
It is possible to autorun files from removable media such 
as floppy disk or Iomega zip cartridges and this is intended 
to enable testing for syntax and logic errors prior to writing a CD. 

This method involves editing the registry so you need to 
take precautions before making any changes.

The registry setting to change is shown below: the default 
entry of 95 should be changed to 91.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ 
Software\
Microsoft\
Windows\
CurrentVersion\
Policies\
Explorer\
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"

This shows NoDriveTypeAutoRun after amendment to enable 
autorun from removable media 


Detailed instructions are shown below: 


In the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe), click Edit, then 
click Find 
In the Find What dialog box, type NoDriveTypeAutoRun then 
click Find Next 
Click Edit, and then click Modify 
Change the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun from 0000 95 00 00 00 
to 0000 91 00 00 00 then click OK 
Click Registry, and then click Exit 
Log off and then log on 
AutoPlay should now be enabled. However, you need to start 
AutoPlay manually when it is installed on a floppy disk or 
zip cartridge. To do this, right click the floppy, or zip, 
drive icon and then click AutoPlay. 
After testing reset the value of NoDriveTypeAutoRun back 
to 0000 95 00 00 00 and then log off then log on