e-Book Design Tips
autorun e-books on cd-roms

 
Home Design Tips Scripts Templates/Translations


Autorun E-Books on CD-ROMs

Information in this article is believed to be correct, but as the AUTORUN format is a Microsoft file format, please check the www.microsoft.com web site for official information.

Recent versions of Windows (since 95) include a neat feature that allows a program on a CD-ROM to automatically be started when the CD-ROM is inserted in the drive.

The way this works is you create a text file called AUTORUN.INF and place it in the root (main) folder of the CD-ROM.

IMPORTANT: Make sure the file is called AUTORUN.INF and not AUTORUN.TXT or AUTORUN.INF.TXT (an easy mistake to make if using Notepad to create this file). You can always check the file name by right clicking on the file in Windows Explorer and doing Properties)

The content of the file should look something like:

[autorun]
open=.\bookname.exe
Where bookname.exe is the name of the book. The above example assumes the e-book EXE is in the main folder of the CD-ROM but it is also possible to use a named folder in the path as in this example:

[autorun]
open=.\foldername\bookname.exe

Save on media

While by default the Autorun feature is enabled only on CD-ROMs, it is possible to change the settings on your computer to Autorun other media types such as floppy disks or ZIP disks. If you are developing a CD-ROM based product, this can potentially help you conserve expensive media during the development and testing phase of your product.

For more information, see the following article: http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q136/2/14.asp

(to use the article it helps if you have a good grasp of binary and hexadecimal numbering).


Windows 95 Problem

Some Windows 95 systems (as far as we know this problem is restricted to Windows 95 only and does not occur on later versions of Windows) seem to lose their Autorun settings. We are not sure why this happens, but if it does (no CD-ROMs including commercial CD-ROMs will autorun on your system), you can set it back using the techniques described in the same Microsoft article that we mentioned previously.





 

Home: eBook Code



Other Sites about eBooks

EBookApprentice.com
Learn about eBook publishing

EBookCompiler.com
Software to create your own eBooks

CoverFactory.com
Create eBook Covers with ease

EBookPower.com
Add multimedia to your eBooks

EBookFriends.com
Discuss eBooks

EBookInterviews.com
Read about other eBook authors' experiences

EBookSubmit.com
Learn about eBook marketing

EBookJungle.com
Searchable directory of eBooks



Related Links

Internet Marketing
 Learn Marketing
 Marketing Tactics

Promotion Links
 Email Marketing
 Increase Traffic
 Press Releases
 Search Engines
 SEO Downloads

Web Site Building
 Accept Credit Cards
 Affiliate Programs
 Domain Names
 Setup Internet Store
 Web Design Software
 Web Design Tutorial
 Web Hosting
 Webmaster Tools

 

 
Disclosure: Advertising Link(s): Our company may receive a payment if you purchase a product/service after following this link.

Disclosure: Our company's websites' content (including this website's content) includes advertisements for our own company's websites, products, and services, and for other organization's websites, products, and services. In the case of links to other organization's websites, our company may receive a payment, (1) if you purchase products or services, or (2) if you sign-up for third party offers, after following links from this website. Unless specifically otherwise stated, information about other organization's products and services, is based on information provided by that organization, the product/service vendor, and/or publicly available information - and should not be taken to mean that we have used the product/service in question. Additionally, our company's websites contain some adverts which we are paid to display, but whose content is not selected by us, such as Google AdSense ads. For more detailed information, please see Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

About/Terms Of Use     Privacy     Site Map     Advertising/Endorsements Disclosures

Copyright © 2002-2009, Answers 2000 Limited