How to Disable Autoplay of Audio CDs and USB Drives

I find it very annoying when I go home from work and
plug my laptop into my external hard drive… The autoplay
window always pops up and asks me what I want to do with
the files, which may be fine the first time, but
definitely isn't after a year of that.

To get to the configuration screen for this setting,
go to Start Menu \ Run and type in:

gpedit.msc

You will see the Group Policy window.
You should select Administrative Templates \ System in the tree view:

You will see an item in the right side pane called "Turn off Autoplay"

Double click the item, and set the radio button to Enabled,
and change the "Turn off Autoplay on" to All Drives.

Now you should be safe from the autoplay monster.