I was looking for a good third party software for CD/DVD burning, but I can’t find one yet that is compatible with Windows 7. Luckily, Windows 7 offers not only one, but two ways to burn discs using Windows Explorer.
I think it is good that they offer built in CD and DVD burning capabilities early on since mainstream third party disc burning software like Nero and Roxio are not yet compatible with Windows 7’s release candidate. In this post I will show you how to use Windows 7’s disc burning capability.
First insert a blank disc on your CD/DVD drive. An AutoPlay window will open so choose burn files to disc:
Another prompt will appear and this time asking you to choose between the two options of burning. The default is the “mastered” option which lets you burn files traditionally – the burned files are read only files so you will not be able to edit or remove them after burning.
The other option is the “live file system” where you can save files like on a USB flash drive – it means you can save, edit and delete files on the disc anytime. The disadvantage is that it is not compatible with players outside XP, Vista and Windows 7. so if you want to burn a disc that you want your XBOX 360 to recognize, burn it using the default mastered option.
In this window, enter the title of the disc then click next. You should see your drive on Explorer with a label that says “drag files to folder…”
Using Windows 7’s side by side snap view position the window above to the left side and another window to the right side. This way you can see the files being added up as you drag files from the right Explorer window to the left.
Click the “burn to disc button”
You may edit the title of the disc or adjust the recording speed. By default it will choose the recording speed supported by your disc. Click the next button to begin the burning process.
The progress bar will show you how much time is needed for the burning process.
That’s it. The good thing about this built in capability is that you won’t have to install third party software just to do basic media burning tasks. I just wish it has that Nero or Roxio-like interface where you can see how much disc space your files are occupying. There is a workaround though, you can still right click the selected files and see the size occupied by the files but it doesn’t tell you exactly how much space is still left with the disc.
Ben Carigtan shows you how it’s done.
hey man. I already know about this but do we have solution for burning discs without third party software? nero 9 is too big and I won’t keep it just because I burn DVDs once in a while….thank you. cheers