CD/DVD/CD-RW/DVD-RW Properties - Fixing autoplay & others

Modified 5-3-07 Note: your dialog boxes may look different due to Windows version changes, but the concept remains the same.

Has your CD/DVD drawer stopped playing automatically when you insert a CD?

Do you find that you can't copy music CD's anymore?

These and other questions can be answered by looking at the properties of the CD/DVD player/writer.

First, lets analyze what happens when you insert a disk in a player. Disks can contain various content. Data files, music, video, programs, slide shows, mixed content or blank. When you insert a CD, XP searches the CD & hopefully recognizes what content is on the CD. If it is a program, the setup file should start asking if you want to install the program. If the program has been installed already, it may ask if you want to repair or uninstall. When you first insert the CD, you may see this window:

This shows that Windows is scanning the CD for content.

A music CD, movie, slide show may just start playing or it may ask you what program to play it with.
You may see this window:

You can choose how to view the files and you can choose to always do the noted action. If you click the Always Do... box, then this window will not show in the future. Not that one choice is "Take No Action". If you were to accidentally check this choice and then check the "Always Do.." box, then in the future, nothing happens when you insert that type of CD. In the insttructions below, you will see how to correct this.

Now it's time to look at the properties for the CD/DVD player/writer:

Open My Computer and right click on the icon for the CD/DVD you are working on:

Notice on this computer, there are 2 hard drives & 3 CD drives. In this example, I right clicked the E drawer, a CD-RW. The properties for this computer look like this:

The properties dialog box for this drive has 5 sheets (tabs). we will look at the autoplay and recording sheets.

The actions shown may vary depending on the programs you have installed. You can make selections as you desire or you can restore the defaults. To restore defaults, click the "Select an action to perform" button, then the Restore Defaults button.

Next lets look at the recording tab.