Autorun MAX

Introduction
About Autorun MAX
Download and Installation
Working with Autorun MAX
Pricing and Support
Conclusion

Introduction

Creating an autorun CD/DVD is the best way to present your work professionally for anything from a presentation to an interactive demo, or even a portfolio. If you thought that it was too difficult or technical an endeavor to create CD/DVD interfaces with an autorun feature, then you should check out Autorun MAX, the product that I am reviewing. Also, if you are graphically challenged, you'll want to explore this product.

About Autorun MAX

Autorun MAX is from Indigo Rose Software, a company based in Winnipeg, Canada. They also create a more featured autorun product called AutoPlay Media Studio 6 that I reviewed a while ago.

Their other products include Setup Factory, Liquid Cabaret, Style Workshop, etc. You can download a trial version of Autorun MAX from their site.

Autorun MAX creates high quality CD menus and easy-to-use interfaces. It is aimed for beginners, and a huge variety of prebuilt templates, which can be edited allow you to quickly create your own autorun CD/DVD.

Autorun MAX has two versions: Home and Business. The Business version is more advanced than Home version. In this review we are looking at the features of the Business version of Autorun MAX.

My contact at Autorun MAX for this review was Colin Adams. Thank you, Colin.

Download and Installation

Download the installer from the link given above, Run the setup routine and follow the instructions. You'll end up with a Autorun MAX program group in your Windows Start menu (see Figure 1 below).

Figure 1: Autorun MAX Start menu Group

If you buy a copy of the product, you'll be prompted to enter your unique serial, and thereafter activate the product.

Working with Autorun MAX

Here's how you could work with Autorun MAX:

1. Whenever you launch Autorun MAX, you are presented with an welcome dialog box (see Figure 2) that allows you to choose from either of these options:
• Create New Project
• Open a Project
2. 
   Figure 2: Working with projects
2. Select Create New Project which opens the Create New Project dialog box (see Figure 3) with an impressive collection of prebuilt templates. Enter the project name and choose a template, you can also opt to start with a blank template. I chose the Documents (Book) template.
3. 
   Figure 3: Templates
3. Based on the template design, you can change the logo, the interface background, background music, change the text, and perform other changes. Most of this involves right-clicking the object that you want to change, and then choosing the Properties option, as shown in Figure 4.
4. 
   Figure 4: Making changes and edits
4. This opens the Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 5. The Properties dialog box has several tabs including a Action tab (see Figure 6), which can be used to apply "events" that can be seen when the project is running, such as opening documents, viewing websites, etc.
5. 
   Figure 5: Properties
6. 
   Figure 6: Actions
5. After making the edits, save the project and click the Publish | Build option. This opens the Publish Project dialog box (see Figure 7) that creates any of these outputs:
• An autorun CD or DVD
• Hard drive folder
• Web/E-mail executable
• An ISO image
6. 
   Figure 7: Publish Project
6. If you chose to burn a CD, make sure that you have a blank CD in your optical drive.

Pricing and Support

Autorun MAX's Business version costs $159. The Home version costs $79.

Support options include a manual, knowledge base, online FAQ and e-mail.

Conclusion

Autorun MAX is simple to use, and can create uncomplicated designs for CD interfaces in minutes using any of the prebuilt templates. You can also start with a blank page. Either way, the entire technical details of creating autorun enabled CDs or DVD's is shielded from you. The product is also priced competitively, and the support is great.