Creating an Icon, Shortcuts, and Auto Execute Commands for a USB Flash Memory Device

by kirk.cieszkiewicz in Circuits > Microsoft

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Creating an Icon, Shortcuts, and Auto Execute Commands for a USB Flash Memory Device

USB-logo[1].gif

The fairly easy way to amaze people with your fancy flash drive! (for Windows)

Alright, first: You need some form of removable storage (not necessarily USB, but it's nice)

Now, insert the removable storage, and open a text editor (ie. notepad++ or notepad)

Type:

07EF:0001:0001:0001
[autorun]

Creating a Custom Label

Autorun file.bmp
Now, to create a custom label, type:

label="Your Label Here"

Creating an Icon

Autorun file.bmp
Note: I highly suggest you save the Icon to the device, otherwise there is a large chance this will not work on other machines (unless you are using Windows native Icons)

Type:

icon="Your icon file here.ico"

Note: You can use icons embedded in a *.dll file by placing the dll file under the icon tag, and then icon index

ie. icon="shell32.dll, 5"

(random number)

Bitmap (*.bmp) files are also supported for this action (but not recommended)

Creating an Auto Execute Command

Autorun file.bmp

Now, this is not necessary, unless you wish to have some app open.

type:

action="Message to be displayed to describe app being run"

NOW, there are a couple options.

You could have the app only show up in Autoplay, or run when the device is opened from "My Computer"

Autoplay option:

open="App to be opened.exe"

Run on open from "My Computer":

shellexecute="App to be opened.exe"

Creating Shell Commands


Alright, Shell Commands are little shortcuts that will pop up when you right click on the device in "My Computer"

type:

shell\exampleshortcut=Description of app
shell\exampleshortcut\command=App.exe

You can use as many of these as you want, as long as the identifier is unique in each case (the "exampleshortcut" part)

Note: You can place and ampersand (&) before the desired character if you wish to have a keyboard shortcut for the command

SAVE

Save the file you just created as "autorun.inf" to the parent directory of the desired device

Note: changes will not take effect until you eject, and then re-insert the device into the computer

Also: There is much more you can do with autorun files, but that's more advanced stuff about identifiers and misc stuff (not really that important)