K7 Autorun Tweaker

Besides having a powerful anti-malware application to keep your computer safe, there are additional measures which can increase your system's security. For example, completely cutting off the Internet connection is not foolproof, since infections can spread through external devices that you might insert into our computer unit.

A popular way for viruses and Trojans to reach PCs is through the autorun feature. This is represented by a process that gets automatically executed by Windows when new media is identified, in order to bring up a window and provide you with faster access to contents.

Unsuspecting users can easily get infected in this manner. However, the quickest workaround is to simply prevent Windows from launching the autorun file. If you're not sure what built-in settings have to be configured in order to make this happen, you can turn to software tools.

Once such program is K7 Autorun Tweaker. Made by the same guys who came up with K7 Antivirus, this is a tiny and portable application whose sole purpose is to disable the OS autorun feature.

Its interface is represented by one window where all options are visible. You just have to check some boxes and click a button to confirm modifications. It's possible to disable autorun on all drivers, in order to cut off all sources of the autorun virus. On the other hand, if there are parts of the computer you are sure to be safe, then you can set localized restrictions. For instance, you can deactivate autorun only on removable, fixed, network or CD/DVD drives.

After clicking "Save" to record your preferences, it's necessary to reboot the computer to commit the changes. This action can be postponed, though, so that you can save any ongoing projects. Although there is no self-explanatory "reset to default" option, autorun can be re-enabled by clearing the ticked boxes.