How to Make Auto-installing CD Program from File

[Whizbang]

I hit on this after having problems installing Win98.  Almost every time before I upgraded to IE5.5 on a new install, Windows Explorer would start failing and shutting down.  I had to find a way to put IE on a disk that would not require my opening Windows Explorer to do it.

So I searched my installation disks until I found a basic INF file on my ISP disk.  I then copied it to desktop and experimented with it.  As it turned out, altering it for use on an executable file was very easy.

1)  I first opened the INF (.inf extension) file simply by double-clicking on it.  It opened in NotePad and was easy to edit after unchecking the "read only" attribute under "Properties."
The basic Autorun.inf file looks like this:

[autorun]
OPEN=setup.exe

2)  I then replaced the "setup.exe" with the name of the IE5.5 command which was IE5setup.exe.  The correct inf file was then

[autorun]
OPEN=IE5setup.exe

3)  I saved that file, made it "read only," and burned it to a CD along with the IE5.5 files.

The result was amazing; it worked the first time!

This method can be used for virtually all files that are self-extracting executable.  It will not work on zipped files because the executable file is not accessed until the zipped file is opened, which is what the Autorun command will do.  First open the file and expand it to a temporary folder.  Then write the autorun line for opening the executable application file before burning all the files with the INF file to a CD.

4)  Make the burned CD "readable on all CD-ROM drives."