Disable Burn to CD/DVD in Windows Vista

Optical disk burning feature embedded inside the Windows Explorer in Windows Vista allows you to burn files to a disk right from the Windows Explorer. It is a very useful tool but does not offer as many features as some commercial software like Nero CD/DVD Burner. If you use a third party optical drive burning software, then you may want to disable the CD/DVD burn feature. This is how :

CD/DVD Burn feature in Windows Vista

You must have administrator level access to perform the following steps.

  1. Press the key combination Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type gpedit.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter.
  3. In the Group Policy Editor, select in the left side tree view : User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Explorer.
  4. In the right side, find a value Remove CD Burning features as shown.

    Group Policy setting for CD/DVD Burn feature

  5. Double click on it and select Enabled.

    Disabling DVD Burn feature in Windows Vista

  6. Click OK to save the settings.