What's wrong with my approach?

[Clay Clear]

I am trying to write a program that toggles the data/audio
CD autorunning feature in my Win98 SE. The audio CD autorunning
toggling part works fine. It's the data CD part that I can't get
to work.

I am a registred user of StepUp 98. Its autorunning toggling
software DOES work. So, I ran REGMON while using it, then I
ran it while using my TEST program, and the results are NEARLY
identical, except that the EXPLORER does more stuff when using
the StepUp feature. So, is there additional message posting that
my program needs to do to Windows in order for the change in the
data CD autorunning flag to be "noticed" by Windows? Is there an
INI file that also has to change? Both my test program and StepUp
change exactly the same value in the Registry. It's just that,
for some reason, when using my program, EXPLORER doesn't go
completely through the steps that it does when StepUp makes the
changes. So, I must presume that there is additional message
traffic between StepUp and Windows 98 SE that REGMON doesn't
show. Unfortunately, the LOG's from REGMON for both StepUp and
my TEST programs are way too big to post or outline here.

One thought that crossed my mind is that I am using the wrong
format in changing the value data in the Registry for the data
CD flag. The flag is a REG_BINARY value, and has one of the
following values:

95 00 00 00 (autorunning enabled)
b5 00 00 00 (autorunning disabled)

I have tried the following, amongst other things:

DIM wx AS ASCIIZ*4
DIM L1 AS LONG
DIM L2 AS LONG
wx = CHR$(149) + CHR$(0) + CHR$(0) + CHR$(0)
L1 = 4

RegOpenKeyEx %HKEY_CURRENT_USER, _
"Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer", _
0, %KEY_SET_VALUE, L2

RegSetValueEx L2, "NoDriveTypeAutoRun", 0, %REG_BINARY, _
wx, L1

I've also tried the following adaptations:

DIM wx AS DWORD
wx = 149

and:

DIM wx AS LONG
wx = 149

My code DOES change the flag in the Registry, according to
RegEdit,
BUT, it has NO effect on the autorunning status of
the CD-ROM drives. StepUp, on the other hand, DOES work.

Any ideas would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!



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Clay C. Clear

http://www.v3space.com/a/a39/202/

[email protected]
[email protected]

[Clay Clear]

This is an update to my first posting.

It turns out that my data CD autorunning toggling DOES work,
but ONLY if I reboot my machine. Then, any changes I make to it
won't take effect until I reboot AGAIN. With the StepUp software,
the changes are immediate and don't require a reboot. So,
apparently, StepUp does something besides just changing the
value. I've pored through the LOG's that I created from REGMON
while running StepUp, and so far, I can't find where it does
something that is obvious.

If anybody has a down-and-dirty answer as to what I need to do
besides changing the data CD's value, please let me know.

BTW, I did a search on Microsoft's site for the value name, and
according to the printouts I made from the results, the value
is a REG_DWORD, NOT a REG_BINARY, as is used by StepUp.
However, the discrepancy might be because the only search
results that I found relate to Win2000, not Win98. I do know
that StepUp WORKS, so, I have to conclude that it uses the
correct value type.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!



------------------
Clay C. Clear

http://www.v3space.com/a/a39/202/

[email protected]
[email protected]

[Clay Clear]

OK, another update.

I did some more research on Microsoft's homesite, this time
for the keyword "autorun", and found out more info.

According to the article I read, the Registry value manipulated
by StepUp and my program is a PERSISTENT variable. So, it's not
SUPPOSED to be effective immediately (i.e., it's SUPPOSED to
require a reboot to become effective, and not respond in realtime
to changes to the variable?) Also, according to the article,
for Windows 2000 and Windows NT, the user is suppose dto rerun
Windows Explorer to make the changes take effect. I tried that
approach in the hopes that it also applied to Win98, but it
didn't.

So, my final question on the subject - does anybody have any
idea on how I can write the program so it has the same realtime
effects as StepUp? Don't worry - I have every intention of
ordering Charles Petzold's book. I am WAY too inexperienced
at writing 32-bit Windows programs to not do so.

Also, one more note - the article on MS said that the autorun
feature can be programmatically altered using a Windows message;
however, that requires the calling program to be the foreground
program. This will not work for my program, as it'll be placed
in the Taskbar Notification Area, and will be an on-demand
program. It's not a program that is run as-needed, then
terminates itself.

Thanks!



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Clay C. Clear

http://www.v3space.com/a/a39/202/

[email protected]
[email protected]

[Semen Matusovski]

Explorer re-reads registry, if to stimulate it only.
Almost sure, that you need SHChangeNotify.
Difficult to say with which flags - probably, SHCNE_DRIVEADD / SHCNE_MEDIAINSERTED / SHCNE_ALLEVENTS.
For example, to update a desktop - SHCNE_ASSOCCHANGED.

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E-MAIL: [email protected]