Burn and rip CDs

When you copy music, pictures, and videos from your PC to a blank CD or DVD, it’s called «burning.» When you copy music, pictures, and videos from a CD or DVD to your PC, it’s called «ripping.» You can use Windows Media Player to do both.

Burn CDs (or data DVDs)

With Windows Media Player, you can burn three kinds of discs: audio CDs, data CDs, and data DVDs. To decide which kind of disc you should use, you’ll need to think about what you want to copy, how much you’re copying, and how you want to play the disc. This table helps you decide what type of disc to use.

Choose this option if you want to make music CDs that you can play in your car, on your stereo, or on your PC.

Use this for music only

Capacity: up to 80 minutes

You can play a data CD on PCs and some CD and DVD players. The device must support the file types that you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or Windows Media Video (WMV). Choose this option if you have lots of music and a CD or DVD player that can play the file types you add to the disc or if you want to back up your media.

Use this for music, pictures, and videos

Capacity is about 700 megabytes (MB), or roughly 8 hours of music

You can play a data DVD on PCs and some DVD players. The device must support the file types that you add to the disc, such as WMA, MP3, JPEG, or WMV. Choose this option if you have a lot of files that won’t fit on a single CD because a data DVD has a lot of space.

Use this for music, pictures, and videos

Capacity is about 4.7 gigabytes (GB), or roughly 54 hours of music

You’ll need two things to get started:

A CD or DVD recorder drive (also known as a CD or DVD burner).

A blank CD or DVD.

You can make a CD that stores about 80 minutes of music and will play in almost any CD player. Or you can make a data CD or DVD that can hold several hours of music (or many photos or short video clips) and will play in PCs. A data CD will work in CD players that support the file types copied to the disc.

Here’s how to burn an audio CD:

Open Windows Media Player.

In the Player Library, select the Burn tab, select the Burn options button , and then select Audio CD or Data CD or DVD.

Insert a blank disc into your CD or DVD burner.

If your PC has more than one CD or DVD drive, select the drive you want to use.

Search for the items in your Player Library that you want to burn to the disc, and then drag them to the list pane (on the right side of the Player Library) to create a burn list.

When you’re finished with the list, select Start burn.

If you want to change the order of the items in the burn list, drag them up or down in the list.

If you want to remove an item from the burn list, right-click the item, and then select Remove from list. This removes the item from the burn list, but doesn’t delete it from your PC.

If your list has too many items for one disc, you can burn the remaining items to a second disc.

Rip CDs

When you rip music from a CD, you’re copying songs from an audio CD to your PC. During the ripping process, the Player compresses each song and stores it on your drive as a Windows Media Audio (WMA), WAV, or MP3 file.

Ripped files are automatically saved to the Music folder, but you can change the location using the options on the Rip settings tab.

Make sure your PC is connected to the Internet if you want Windows Media Player to automatically get info about the songs, such as the name of the CD, the artist, and titles for the tracks being ripped.

Open Windows Media Player.

Insert an audio CD into the PC’s CD drive.

Select the Rip CD button .

If you want to select a different format or bit rate, select the Rip settings menu, and then choose Format or Audio Quality in the Player Library.

If you don’t want to rip every song, clear the check boxes next to the songs you don’t want.

In the Player Library, search for the album or song you want to edit.

Right-click the album, and then select Find album info.

Do one of the following:

If the correct album or artist info appears in the search results, select the correct entry, and then follow the instructions on the page to automatically update the album art and media info.

If the correct album doesn’t appear in the search results, follow the instructions on the page to search again using different search criteria, or to manually add the media info.

If you get an error message when you try to find album info that says you need to change your privacy settings, select Organize, select Options, select the Privacy tab, and then select the Update music files by retrieving media info from the Internet check box.

If the correct album info appears with a generic music icon displayed as the album art, the album art is unavailable for download.

The changes you make apply to new tracks that you rip. You can’t use the Player to change the format or audio quality of a song you’ve already ripped.

Open Windows Media Player.

Insert a CD into your CD drive.

Maximize the Windows Media Player window so you can see all of the menu options, select Rip settings, and then select the setting you want to change.

Enable or Disable CD Burning in Windows 10

By Mitch Bartlett 19 Comments

Depending on the environment, you may or may not want to allow users to be able to burn CD’s or DVD’s on certain computer systems. Enable or disable CD burning capability in Microsoft Windows 10 with this registry hack.

Option 1 – Registry Setting

1. Hold the Windows Key, then press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “regedit“, then press “Enter“. This will open the registry editor.
3. Navigate to the following registry key:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for all users, or HKEY_CURRENT_USER for the currently logged in user.
   • Software
   • Microsoft
   • Window
   • CurrentVersion
   • Policies
   • Explorer
4. Look for a key called “NoCDBurning”. If it does not exist, you can create a new DWORD value under the Explorer folder by performing the following steps:
   • Click “Edit” > “New” > “DWORD Value“.
   • Name it “NoCDBurning” without quotes. Press “Enter” to save.
5. Double-click on “NoCDBurning” and you can set the value to “1” to disable CD burning or set it to “0” to enable it.

Log off the current user, then log back in. The ability to drag and drop files to the CD or DVD drive will be disabled as well as the ability to Format discs.

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

Option 2 – Group Policy

1. Hold the Windows Key, then press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
2. Type “gpedit.msc“, then select “OK“.
3. Go to “User Configuration” > “Administrative Templates” > “Windows Components” > “File Explorer“.
4. Open the “Remove CD Burning Features” setting.
5. Set the policy to “Enabled” to disable disc burning. Set it to “Disabled” or “Not Configured” to allow disc burning.

Does this setting block disc burining via third-party disc burning applications like Nero?

No. This setting is only for the integrated Windows disc burning features.

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Filed Under: Windows Tagged With: Windows 10

Problem Burning CDs with Windows Media Player

I am on an HP Envy laptop and I use Windows Media Player and Windows 8 to burn CDs. I burned about 14 CDs in a row and all of a sudden, I am encountering a problem where the burner gets to the very end of the song list and then it stops, finalizes the disc and spits it back out, then gives me this error message-

Windows Media Player cannot burn the files. If the burner is busy, wait for the current task to finish. If necessary, verify that the burner is connected properly and that you have installed the latest device driver.

No information I have found on the net is helping with this problem. I was told to possibly uninstall any 3rd party burning software, but I can’t find any in my list of installed programs.

Can anyone help me with this problem? I am sick and tired of wasting CDs.

Replies (8) 

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community forum for first time.

As per the issue description you are unable to rip and burn CD/DVD. When you copy music, pictures, and videos from your PC to a blank CD or DVD, it’s called «burning.» When you copy music, pictures, and videos from a CD or DVD to your PC, it’s called «ripping.» You can use Windows Media Player in Windows 8.1 to do both.

Are you able to play audio/video files in Windows Media Player?

If your computer is having problems playing video or audio files in Windows Media Player, try using the Windows Media Player Settings troubleshooter to fix the problem. The troubleshooter checks the configuration and network settings for Windows Media Player to make sure that you can play content you’ve downloaded and saved to your computer, or content streaming over a network or the Internet.

Steps to run the Windows Media Player Settings troubleshooter.

1. Press Windows key +X, select Control panel.

2. Change the view by option on the top right to Large icons.

3. Click on troubleshooting and click on the view all option on the left panel

4. Run the Windows Media Player Settings troubleshooter

If issue still persist you may try to refer the steps provided below and see if it works for you.

Let’s reinstall Windows Media Player and check if it helps.

Step A: Uninstalling Windows Media Player:

a. Move the mouse to bottom left corner, right-click on the start icon and select Programs and Features.

b. Click on Turn Windows features On or Off on the left pane.

c. Under Media Features uncheck Windows Media Player and click ‘OK’.

d. Restart the computer.

Step B: Reinstalling Windows Media Player:

a. Move the mouse to bottom left corner, right-click on the start icon and select Programs and Features.
b. Click on Turn Windows features On or Off on the left pane.
c. Under Media Features check Windows Media Player and click ‘OK’.
d. Restart the Computer.

e. Now check if the Windows Media player works fine.

You may also refer to this link:

Additional Information:

For burning/ripping CD/DVD you may refer to the steps provided in the following article and see if it helps you to fix the issue.

Hope this would help. If issue still persists post back with current status of your computer and result of proposed suggestion, we will be happy to assist you.

Intro to burning CDs and DVDs in iTunes on PC

You can use iTunes to create your own CDs and DVDs with audio and video from your iTunes library.

Important: You can’t burn the following to CDs or DVDs:

Movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store

Songs or music videos downloaded from Apple Music

What do I need to burn discs?

A disc drive that can burn discs. (To see if your drive is compatible, choose Edit > Preferences, click Advanced, then click Burning. If your drive is listed, it’s compatible.)

An iTunes playlist containing the music and video you want on the disc. If your playlist contains iTunes Store purchases, you can burn it to a disc as many times as you want as long as all the items are iTunes Plus songs. If some items aren’t iTunes Plus songs, you can burn the playlist up to seven times.

A blank disc. Some older CD players won’t play CD-RW discs (but they will play CD-R discs). You can use DVDs with your computer, but most DVD players can’t read data DVD discs. (“RW” stands for “read-write” and means the disc can be erased and reused.)

How many files can I burn on a disc?

The number of songs a disc can hold depends on the format of the song files and the capacity of the disc. You can fit about 74 minutes of music on a 650MB audio CD, or about 150 MP3 files on the same size disc. Some CDs can contain 700MB of music. A DVD can hold 4.7 gigabytes (GB), almost five times as many songs as a CD.

What type of disc should I use?

To create audio CDs that work in most stereo systems, use CD-R discs. CD-RW discs usually work only in computers.

To create a CD of MP3 files to play in your computer or an MP3 CD player, use a CD-R disc; some MP3 players can play CD-RW discs as well.

If your computer has a DVD burner, you can burn a playlist on a DVD-R or DVD-RW disc. DVDs you create using iTunes work only in your computer (not DVD players).

For more information about the drives that work with iTunes, see the iTunes Support website.

Windows Media Player won’t burn CDs

Replies (24) 

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1. What is the exact error message?

I suggest you to try the steps provided and check if it helps.

Step 1: Try to slow down the burning speed and check if it helps.

a. Open Windows Media Player.

b. Click on Tools.

c. Click on Options.

d. Click on Burn tab.

e. Under Burn tab, change the speed.

Step 2: Disable error correction and check if it helps.

a. In Windows Media Player, on the Tools menu, click Options.

b. On the Devices tab, click Properties for the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive that is being used.

c. Remove the checkmark from Use error correction.

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Uninstalling and Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:
Step 1.
Uninstalling the Windows Media Player:
1. Go to Start and in the search type «Turn Windows features On or Off».
2. Click on «Turn Windows features On or Off».
3. Browse to the Media Features and uncheck the mark in front of Windows Media Player.
4. Restart the computer

Step 2.
Reinstalling the Windows Media Player:
1. Go to Start and in the search type «Turn Windows features On or Off».
2. Click on «Turn Windows features On or Off».
3. Browse to the Media Features and place a check mark in front of Windows Media Player.
4. Restart the Computer.

If you are having trouble using Windows Media Player, try using the troubleshooter to see if that fixes the problem.

Open the Windows Media Player Settings troubleshooter by clicking the Start button, and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter , and then click Troubleshooting . Click View all , and then click Windows Media Player Settings .