Probably you don't know this... whether you want to store a CD temporarily in your laptop when travelling, and you don't want it to start playing when you put it in, or something else, you can temporarily disable AutoPlay in Windows by just pressing the left Shift key when inserting the CD. No Control Panel tinkering needed.
Probably you'll want to hold it for some time after you insert the CD, as the computer tries to detect the kind of disc. If you briefly press the key and pop the disc in and lift your finger immediately, it just won't work.