Autorun for CDs run on both Mac and MS operating systems?

Question

Level 1

0 points

Autorun for CDs run on both Mac and MS operating systems?

Hello,

I have built a website that runs from CD-ROM. In the root directory of the site it contains three extra files which enable the disc, when it is inserted into the CD drive, to fire up the web browser (on my computer this is Internet Explorer 6), open the HTML home page of the CD website, and change the CD drive's icon to an icon of my choice. To do this, I use a self-executable file called "runner". All of this works OK on any Microsoft Windows platform, but not on any Mac OS.

The three files are:
autorun.inf
runner.exe
An icon file (say, "myicon.ico")
(The icon file isn't compulsory - it can be left out if not required.)

The "autorun.inf" file can be opened in Notepad, and the text contents changed and saved to account for the name of the HTML web page that needs to be opened first in the web browser (in this case, "index.htm"). The text in "autorun.inf" therefore looks like this, containing three lines of text:
[autorun]
open=runner index.htm
icon=myicon.ico

"Index.htm", in the above case, is in the same directory as "runner.exe" (i.e. the root directory of the CD drive).

Is there anything I can do, perhaps with the addition of some sort of Mac-compliant file, so that the CD will self-start in the way described above, regardless of whether it is run in Windows or a Mac OS?

Thanks,

RMS-link

IBM ThinkPad, Windows XP

Posted on Sep 19, 2006 8:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

iFelix

Level 8

35,161 points

Sep 20, 2006 5:59 AM in response to rms-link

You can't get a CD to autorun on a Mac in the same way you can on a PC.

What you can do is to get the CD to automatically open a disc window. So that users can then just double click and open the index file.

You can modify the auto window size and look quite easily as well.

In order to do this you will need however to create a hybrid disk, Toast can do this quite easily.

iFelix

Reply

Answer 2

Sep 20, 2006 9:33 AM in response to rms-link

Besides the autorun issue I don't think you can make Mac OS X to open an ".exe" file as an executable file. I'd think twice ( even thrice...) !!

Reply

Answer 3

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Sep 20, 2006 9:55 AM in response to iFelix

Autorun pretty much only exists on Windows. It is a potential security threat, which has been exploited in the past on both Windows and Macintosh (back when Macs had this). Users can disable this feature on their Windows computers, so you can't rely on it always being present, even on Windows. Microsoft even recommends disabling it to improve security.

Here's a little info on it on Wikipedia.

Reply

Answer 4

iFelix

Level 8

35,161 points

Sep 20, 2006 3:24 PM in response to Kyriakos Papadakis

In this case all runner.exe does is open the index.htm file.

Autorun.inf executes runner.exe which then opens the index.htm file in the default browser.

Of course runner.exe will only run on a Windows PC.

There is no Mac solution to do the same thing to the index.htm file when the CD is run on a Mac.

iFelix

Reply

Answer 5

rms-link Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2006 6:43 PM in response to iFelix

Thanks for the responses to my query. Whether the question has been totally and completely answered I don't know, so I haven't checked the appropriate box. I haven't heard of software called Toast - will look it up.

(I wonder if Microsoft will disable, remove, or find a workaround for the autorun feature on their own CDs.)

Thanks,

RMS-link

Reply

Answer 6

rms-link Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 20, 2006 7:10 PM in response to rms-link

A follow-up to previous posting. For anyone interested in this topic, here is a website I found explaining how to use the Toast program to create a hybrid disc for PC and Mac. At first read it looks pretty complex work to me, but is informative:
http://davidseah.com/archives/2005/12/19/creating-a-hybrid-cd-rom-with-toast-7/

Thanks,

RMS-link

Reply

Answer 7

Wade Peeler

Level 6

10,906 points

Sep 21, 2006 9:32 AM in response to rms-link

The instructions in that article still won't do what you want. It'll do what iFelix suggested in his first post, so that on the Mac, a folder will automatically open up to the contents of the CD, but your program will not run, nor will your webpage open.

Reply