How to disable autorun in Win XP

Can't disable that uber-annoying autorun that starts every time you run a program? You'll have to edit the Group Policy (never knew you had one, huh?).
 
Click START and then RUN. Type GPedit.msc and press ENTER.

... ... ...
 
Nothing happened, right?
Of course not. The Wicked Witch of Microsoft made sure it could not.
There's nothing wrong with your computer, nor are the necessary files (GPedit.msc & Co.) corrupt or anything like that. It's just that certain Windows editions do not include them (XP Home being one of them).
 
So, for the privilege to run your own computer the way you want it, you have to be either nostradamically endowed to foresee whether the Windows edition you're buying includes the files (that nobody EVER told you about) necessary to disable the autorun feature - or you simply go here and download them.
 
After you've done that, unzip them and click the InstallGPEdit.bat.
This will install the files in the proper directory (System32).
 
After you've done that, open the System32 folder (you'll find it in the Windows folder) and create a new folder and name it GroupPolicy.
 
Open this (still empty) folder and create another folder within it; name it ADM.
 
Find the following files and copy them into the ADM folder that you just created:

system.adm
inetres.adm
conf.adm
 
Now click START again, select RUN and run these commands (one by one, obviously):

regsvr32 gpedit.dll
regsvr32 fde.dll
regsvr32 gptext.dll
regsvr32 appmgr.dll
regsvr32 fdeploy.dll 


This will register the files you just copied into your OS.
A window should pop up informing you that "registration succeeded" or something to that effect.
 
Finally, click START and then RUN. Type GPedit.msc and press ENTER.
Now it should work like a charm.

Do not thank me. Thank these guys.  
I did.
 
Now you can finally edit your Group Policy. To do that, you will have to hack the registry. But before we go on...

IMPORTANT:

Please, make sure you have a a backup copy of your registry and a system restore point.

I do not anticipate you will need it IF you repeat the following steps exactly as they are presented, but just in case - please, do not blame us if anything goes awry. You have been warned.

As long as that is clear, we can continue. 
Click START, then RUN, type regedit and press ENTER.

Now click HKEY_CURRENT USER.
Click Software.
Click Microsoft.
Click Windows.
Click Current Version.
Click Policies.
Click Explorer.
 
Now that you've arrived in the Explorer folder, look at the right pane.
Highlight NoDriveTypeAutorun and select MODIFY in the drop-down menu.
The value shown should be hexadecimal; if it is not, select hexadecimal.
 
Type 95 and click OK.

This will disable autorun on removable/USB drive, but still allow it on CD-ROMs. To disable the autorun function on both types of drive, do not write 95 - type b5 instead.
 
Reboot your computer for the registry changes to take effect.
 
Again, do not thank me. Thank this guy... sorry, gal. :)
 
And good luck being the captain of the ship that you bought and is rightfully yours.