Autorun Eater is a small free utility that has been designed for a very specific threat. As removable media becomes more and more prolific, a large number of systems were becoming infected through the autorun.inf file that resides on the removable media - Conficker being a prime example of malware that can spread in this way.
Since removable media does not require installation, it has become an easy way to transfer large amounts of data from system to system. Malware can easily attach itself to the external drive, as it does not have any resident protection. When the drive is plugged into another system, the autorun feature on the drive opens a dialogue box, prompting the user to take certain actions. This way the malware can propagate itself into the second system through the autorun file.
Autorun Eater was created to combat this specific threat, as most antivirus software applications will pass over those files without a second thought.
