For Windows see this M$ tutorial For linux see autorun In either case system settings may disable autorunning of CDs so you would be wise to include file called something like START_WIN32.EXE and START_LINUX for example to make manual starts simple. On Win32 it is AUTORUN.INF that gets automatically parsed, on Linux autorun (lowercase) that gets executed. These files need to be in the root of your CDROM.

AUTORUN.INF (for Win32)
----------------------------
[autorun]
Open=CmdLine
Icon=IconPathName, IconIndex
----------------------------

autorun (for Linux)
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#!/bin/sh
exec CmdLine
----------------------------
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Often all the two autorun files do is call their respective manual start widgets.