How do I disable autorun of executables from a newly inserted CD/DVD disc under this "(barely) operating" system? I don't like having spyware install itself and run without my permission.

???

Mm.. maybe I'll try TweakUI. The control-panel properties for "autoplay" don't actually work. Hopefully TweakUI does..

I had to perform a registry hack to do it. I just googled for 'xp cd autorun disable' or something like that.

Back in the old days, there used to be a hardware property for the CD-ROM Drive that allowed you to disable "Auto-insert notification", meaning that it would not try to even detect when a CD had been inserted, let alone try to autorun it. This counted for music CDs as well as data CDs.

I can't seem to find that option any more... So now I just use tweakUI, like you said, to individually turn of data CD and audio CD autorun.

CD's. How quaint.