Creating CDs right from Windows XP
Since the late 1990′s it has been quite the advancement in computer technology to allow users to store data on CD Rom media or even make identical copies of existing CD Rom discs.
When the technology to create CDs was first introduced, the computer needed to have CD writing software from Nero or Adaptec or some other vendor coupled with a CD Rom drive that was capable of writing data to CD media.
With the popularity of CD burning PC manufacturers have been including CD Rom drives that can write CDs in the majority of computers sold and Microsoft licensed CD burning technology from Adaptec to include in Windows.
The remainder of this post is going to walk through the process of creating a CD Rom directly with Windows XP using no other applications.
To create a CD Rom using Windows, complete the following steps:
1. Create a new folder on your desktop called Write to CD
Note: I am using a new folder here to create an easy location to place the files you will write to a CD. However, any folder location will work.
2. Copy the files you wish to write to CD into the new folder
3. Open the CD Rom folder for the CD Writeable drive in your computer (usually drive D or E) by clicking on Start and then My Computer and then double clicking the letter of the CD writeable drive.
4. Drag the contents of the Write to CD folder into the open Window for the writeable CD drive.
5. In the left portion of the CD rom window you should see a section for CD Writing Tasks, if there are no options showing, click the double down arrow to expand it.
6. Click the link labeled Write these files to CD
7. The CD writing wizard will appear, click Next past the welcome screen
8. Enter a label for the CD Rom, this will default to the current date.
Note: You can only enter 11 characters into the label field
9. Click Next to begin writing the CD
10. After the first disc has completed, the final window of the wizard will appear displaying a check box to create another copy of the same CD, if you wish to do this check the box and click Finish, if you are done creating CD Roms, click Finish to close the Wizard.
There you have it… the simple, but useful process of creating CD Roms.
One final note, if your computer has Nero installed on it, you may have difficulty using the Windows XP CD writing utility and should use Nero instead.
