How to Remove or Delete AutoPlay Handler from the Options List in Windows

AutoPlay or AutoRun dialog window will pop up when an removable drive, portable device such as digital camera and media player or CD/DVD disc been inserted into computer or placed into optical drive, with plenty of action choices in a list of options for users to choose to perform on the just connected drive and drive contents. Each item in the AutoPlay list is a handler installed by various applications to show as an option for a particular events or content types such as Pictures, Videos, and Mixed.

Windows by default has several AutoPlay handlers, and other third-party programs, especially media player such as MusicMatch Jukebox and RealPlayer, and image burning software such as Nero will add their own AutoPlay handlers and shortcuts into the list. Over the time, the AutoPlay list can get longer and longer, and some entries can become invalid or orphaned when the program has been uninstalled by the AutoPlay handlers are not removed.

To delete and remove an entry or item from AutoPlay menu, its corresponding handler in the registry has to be deleted. To make the management of AutoPlay entries easier, such as to delete and remove an unwanted or unneeded entry in AutoPlay menu, an AutoPlay cleanup utility is available.

CleanHandlers is a AutoPlay handlers cleanup utility that able to scan and find invalid AutoPlay entries and remove those junk handlers automatically. The CleanHandlers also allows users to delete and remove the AutoPlay items that they no longer needed or doesn’t want the items to appear on the menu list.

Find out more information about CleanHandlers or download CleanHandlers here. It officially supports Windows XP and Windows Vista, but should work in later operating systems such as Windows 7.

It’s also possible to manually edit the system registry to remove the AutoPlay handlers. The AutoPlay handlers are stored at the following registry location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\Handlers\

Above registry key stores handler settings, which is the action to perform when selected on AutoPlay.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers\EventHandlers\

Above registry key stores various event names, which contains associated handlers. Which mean all entries added as the value for the event will be shown as an option when the particular event happens and trigger the AutoPlay menu dialog.

Note that any wrong modification to the registry may cause instability. So if you plan to remove any handlers directly from the registry, backup the key before modifying.