CD Burning in Windows

I know people who have CD burners in their PC desktop or laptop computers who have never once actually burned a CD - all because it seems intimidating on the surface. Sometimes the CD burning "suites" that come with PCs are in fact overwhelming, with lots of options and modes and so forth. Nero comes to mind. Nero used to be a great CD burning application for Windows, but over time got really bloated and cumbersome. I haven't used Roxio's EZ-CD-Creator or whatever it's now called in a long time, but it was HORRIBLE.

Mac users have the excellent, easy-to-use Toast program. But what are Windows users to do if they want to just burn some simple data CDs - say, backups of their documents, for example?

Fortunately there's an easy answer, and you don't even have to buy anything. You can burn CDs directly in Windows, using nothing but Windows Explorer. Here's how!

To get started, pop in a blank CD (duh!) You might have to wait a few seconds, but eventually two things will happen. First, the icon for your CD drive will change and indicate you’re now working with a recordable CD. It will say “CD-R” on the icon. Second, a window will come up asking what you want to do with this blank CD:



Choose Open Writeable CD folder. (You may see other options there based on whatever burning programs came with your computer) A new folder will open on your desktop, showing the drive letter and icon for your blank CD:



Now, drag the stuff you want to burn to CD into this window. If it’s a lot of data, Windows will take a little time scanning through your source materials. Then Windows will copy the files you've chosen to a temporary holding area, in preparation for the burn. Nothing is on the CD at this point.

When the disk burn utility is done preparing your files, your Window will look like this:



Right-click anywhere in that window and select Write these files to CD when you’re ready.

A window will pop up asking you to name the CD first. You get 16 characters total, which includes spaces. Burn baby burn!