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I've seen this before with commercial CDs: they sound like regular a audio CD when inserted into a music player or stereo, but when inserted into a PC they instead open up a Flash presentation (.exe) or something similar.

I was thinking of using MakeInstantPlayer to execute the video as an .exe file but I'm unsure how to create the disc so that it plays as a music file and opens the presentation when inserted in a PC.

What software should I use and how would I do that?

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Such a CD is called a "CD extra" or an enhanced CD.

You create them by first burning an audiosession without closing the disc.

Next you create a new session with the data on it. (You can only do this is you opted for multi-session burning - Do not close the disc/session after writing the previous audio tracks).

This results in a CD which will play audio when inserted in an normal audio CD player, but which will show data when inserted into a CDROM player. Note that it will not automatically start any program on the CDROM because this is a huge security risk.

Some operating systems (e.g. XP) used to start any programs if an autorun file was present, but then MS has been convinced that the risk was way greater than the potential extra ease of use, and it has been disabled for years now.

As to what software: Software recommendations are off topic, but just about any standard CD writing software will allow this.

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  • just a question: no autorun it's okay.. but how am I supposed to "hint" the user to run my presentation? Should I just leave the presentation.exe file in the directory? Jan 13, 2013 at 16:02
  • I would simply put two files on it. One text file called README describing the presentation, and one presentation in an as generic form as possible (e.g. presentation.mpeg. Not in a form which requires a mac, or a windows .exe, or something which requires other software such as powerpoint to be installed.)
    – Hennes
    Jan 13, 2013 at 16:09
  • Ofc. you can tailor that you your customers. If it is meant only OS/X users then a mac specific format is fine. Ditto for other targets.
    – Hennes
    Jan 13, 2013 at 16:11

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