There are lots of good disk burning tools, both paid and free. While there’s nothing wrong with using third-party applications, Windows 8 does have built-in disk burning options. The result, is of course the same as using a different application, except you’ll simply be using the tools your Windows OS places at your disposal.
Burning Data CD or DVD in Windows 8
1. Insert a blank CD/DVD into the CD/DVD optical media drive.
2. If you have Autoplay on, a pop-up notification will ask you to select what you want to do with that type of disc. Clicking/tapping on it will open another dialog window where you can choose between “Burn files to disc File Explorer” or “Take no action” options.
3. Selecting the first option takes you to the Burn a Disc dialog window. If you don’t have Autoplay off you can open up the same window by opening File Explorer and double-clicking on your disc drive.
4. The Burn a Disc window offers two options: “Like a USB/Flash Drive” and “With a CD/DVD player”.
4a. The first option, “Like a USB/Flash Drive” burns the disc using the Live File System and lets you add/remove data like you would on a Flash Drive. The blank disc doesn’t need to be rewritable, you can use a normal disk. This type of disc you can use only in Windows XP and later version. If you select this option, Windows will format the disc (which may take a while).
After the formatting is complete you can open the disc using File Explorer and add the data you want on it. You can either drag and drop or copy/paste the files and folders. As soon as you add new files/folders they will be written on the disc. You can see the progress in the file copying dialogue.
Removing an item from the disc is done by simply deleting it, like you would with any file or folder in your computer. Once you’re done editing the list of items on your disc you need to close the session. In Windows 8 the only way to do that is by ejecting the disc, from the Manage tab – “Eject” option.
4b. The second option “With a CD/DVD player” is particularly useful if you plan on using your disc with non-Windows devices. This options burns your files onto the disc and closes it so it can be used in a CD/DVD player and in any computer. You can add new data onto the disc at a later time, but you can’t delete what’s already written on the disc.
Adding files/folders is done the same way as for the first option via drag and drop or copy/paste but they will be saved to a temporary list instead of getting automatically burned to the disc.
Once you’ve added all the files you want, go to the Manage tab and click/tap on the “Finish Burning” option.
In the Burn to Disc window you can choose a name for your disc and select the recording speed, before the burning process starts. Click/tap on Next when you’re done and wait for the files to be burned on the disc (it may take a while depending on the amount of data, disc type, write speed and your hardware configuration).
Burning an ISO File in Windows 8
You don’t need any third-party tools for this either. It basically couldn’t get any easier than this.
1. Insert a blank CD/DVD into the CD/DVD optical media drive.
2. Open the folder where your ISO image file is located.
3. Right-click on the ISO file and select “Burn disc image” from the context menu.
4. In the Windows Disc Image Burner window, select your burner and click/tap on Burn. That’s it!
