Windows XP was launched with an inbuilt tool for writing data directly on a writable CD. You did not require any special CD burning software for the same and writing to the CD was just like writing to a flash drive or to a floppy disk. Windows Vista has taken this feature one more steps ahead and in Windows Vista you can write data on DVD by just dragging it or by pasting the copied contents. In Windows Vista you can even create Audio DVDs or Video DVDs by using the other built in applications like the Media Player and the Movie Maker. It was never so easy and again for writing to the DVDs you do not need any special software. Just insert a blank or re-writeable DVD and use it just like a flash drive or a floppy disk. Though now we use DVDs instead of CDs but you can also burn the CDs the same way in Windows Vista.
Before we tell you how to burn DVDs in Windows Vista you need to understand a bit of technicalities behind it. The first thing is that your DVD drive should be capable of writing on DVDs. Second you need to understand the difference between the DVD+R and DVD-R disks. Though the writing and reading of DVD+R and DVD-R is similar when these disks have to be used on a computer but if you have to use them on some DVD player then make sure to use the disk type which is supported by your player. A DVD+R DVD player might not be able to read the DVD-R disks in it and vice versa.
Let’s start burning. Take out a new blank DVD and insert it in your computer. After inserting wait for few seconds so that your computer recognises the disk and give you the appropriate auto run options. When the AutoPlay Window comes up you will see options like Burn a DVD data disk (using Windows Media Player) and Burn files to disk (using Windows). If you select the first optin the Windows Media Player will come up and then you can select the songs which you want to burn and it will further burn them on your DVD after collecting all the choices from you. If you select the second option it will give you a small Window asking you to enter a title for the disk. By default it is the date but you can change it to anything of your choice. When you click on Net it takes a little time in making the disk write ready and then opens the same in Windows Explorer Window so that you can simply drag the files into it.
When the Disk opens in Windows Explore you will find that there are no icons in it because it is blank. It is good practise to open two windows for Explorer and then tile them next to each other. Keep the DVD open in one and use the other Windows for browsing through the files which you want to burn. This ways it is easy to drag and drop in to the DVD. When you open a writable disk in Windows Explorer you will notice that a new button called BURN appears in it; you have to click on this button to burn the files which you have copied on the DVD. Once burnt just eject the DVD. It will not get ejected instantly because on ejecting the Windows will first close the session so that the data which you have written on the DVD can be finalised and so that it can be used on other computers. After finalising the session the DVD will come out and it is all ready to be used anywhere else. Wasn’t it simple?
