Disable AutoRun and AutoPlay in Windows XP

AutoRun and AutoPlay are Windows features that enable the automatic execution of specified programs when a removable medium, such as a USB flash drive, is attached to the computer. These two features are a common vector of installing unwanted malicious software, so it always advised to disable them in order to enhance the system’s security. You will find below the necessary steps that are required in order to disable these features under Windows XP

Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

The above is a common error message that appears during the boot process of the Windows XP operating system. Microsoft has a knowledge base article with instructions for recovery. Below, I present a different recovery technique.

Manipulate Microsoft registry hive files from Python

Update 2020/04/05: Uploaded source code on GitHub.

I’ve written a small utility in Python that has the capability to manipulate the binary data files that hold the Microsoft Windows registry. These files are called hives.