Since Windows 7 Microsoft offers the possibility to burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs directly from Windows Explorer. If your PC comes with a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc burner, you really don’t need third-party burning software.
In this post, I’ll walk you through the steps to burn a disc and the different options when burning. If your drive supports it, Windows can actually burn a disc that works like a USB drive, which means you can add and delete data from the CD.
Burning discs in Windows 7, 8, 10
The easiest way to start the disc burning process in Windows is to insert a CD, DVD or Blu-ray disc into the drive. Windows should automatically open a dialog box asking what you want to do with the CD.
Note that when you insert a CD, the option to burn an audio CD is also displayed. If you insert a DVD or Blu-ray disc, you will see only the option to burn files to disc.
Burn Audio CD
If you want to burn an audio CD, select the Burn an audio CD option to use the Windows Media Player. If you don’t see the pop-up dialog box, just click Start, type Windows Media Player to open it, and then from the left menu click Blank CD.
Click on the tab on the right Burn and then simply drag and drop your audio files into the area with the Heading Drag items here, to start creating your audio CD. Note that it is very important to check if you have a Data- CD or a Audio- Burn a CD. A data CD lets you burn hundreds of audio files, but may not be playable by regular CD players.
An audio CD can be played by any CD player, but is limited to 80 minutes of audio. You can change the setting in Windows Media Player by clicking the Burning Options drop-down menu located to the right of the button to the Launch of the burning process.
Once you have selected your setting and added all your files, click them on the button Start burn and the burning process begins.
This is it for burning audio CDs. See also my previous post about ripping audio CDs with Windows Media Player.
Burn data CD
If you want to use the option Files on disk burn instead of option Burn Audio you will get another pop-up window asking you how you want to use the disc: Like a USB flash drive or Using a CD / DVD player .
If you select the first option, you can add, edit, and delete files from the disc. However, you can only use the disc on computers running Windows XP and above, which are Support Live File System . It also depends on whether your drive supports the function or not. Lastly, the disc itself must be a rewritable disc. If you have only one CD-R or DVD-R, you cannot use this option.
There doesn’t seem to be a clear indication of whether or not a drive supports the feature, so you basically just have to try it out and see if it works. When you click the "Next click, the DVD will be formatted and you will get another popup indicating that it can be used now.
Simply drag and drop files and folders onto the disc just like you would on a regular USB stick. The only difference is that you need some time when adding, deleting or editing files on the disc.
At this time your CD is not ready. When you try to eject it, you get the message Prepare to eject – Please wait while this session is closed so the disc can be used on other computers .
Closing the session means Windows has to burn all the files you added and delete everything you deleted, etc. To avoid this, you can also just go to Explorer, click on This PC, and then right-click on the CD / DVD / click. Blu-ray drive and select" Close session", After you have made changes to the contents of the disc.
If you select the With a CD / DVD player select , if the dialog box How to CD be used? Displayed, a new Explorer window appears where you can drag and drop files onto your CD.
When you have added all the data you want to the disc, click on the button Burn finish under Drive Tools – Manage . Note that this will burn and finalize the CD. This means that you will not be able to delete or edit the data after it has been burned to the CD. However, you can add more data to the disc at a later time.
The Wizard to Burn to Disc pops up where you can give the disc a title and select the recording speed. Click on Continue and the burning process starts. The time depends on how much data you burn and how fast the recording speed is.
When you insert the CD again, you can add more files, and two sections will appear in Explorer: Current files on the CD and files to be written to the CD. Click Finish, to add the new files to the disc.
Burn Video DVD
Finally, you may want to burn a video DVD in Windows, which you can do, but it requires a different tool. If you are using Windows 7, you can simply use the Windows DVD Maker program to burn videos to DVD. Windows 8 and Windows 10 have Windows DVD Maker removed, so you’ll need to use a third-party program like DVD Flick, which I also wrote about in the linked article.
You can also read my previous article on burning photo slideshows to DVD with DVD Maker for Windows 7 and another tool for Windows 8/10. Also, if you’re on a Mac, be sure to read my article on burning DVDs in OS X. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment below. Enjoy!
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