CD autorun

Not all CD's will autorun. Only those with a file called autorun.inf in the root directory.

Autorun.inf is the primary instruction file associated with the Autorun function associated with removable media such as CD's and DVD's. After Windows detects that a disk has been inserted, it looks in the disk's root directory, finds, reads and follows specific instructions defined in this text based configuration file.

Use regedit, go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CONTROLSET001/SERVICES/CDROM you should see a DWORD named Autorun with a value of 1 in hexadecimal base. In case you don't have this value, you can created using "Edit/New/Dword Value" select Hexadecimal Base and the value 1. That should do the trick. Restart your computer.

Good job Heinrich_marco (proposed answer 2). The answer can be found on the link "Look like a Windows NT registry pro..." right on Techrepublic.com's home page.