Writing a CD in Windows 7

1. With Windows 7, you can create your own CDs with your favorite tracks. Nowadays, you burn a CD, which means that you copy files to the CD. To create a list of tracks to burn, click the Burn tab in Media Player to display the pane on the right side of Media Player.

2. Now insert a blank recordable CD into the CD drive. You can buy blank CDs at an office supply or electronics store. CD-Rs are good for music.

3. To show the tracks that you want to copy to a CD, click a playlist or music category.

4. Now, drag and drop a track, an album or a playlist into the burn list. To rearrange the tracks, drag them up and down in the burn list.

5. To delete a track from the burn list, right-click and select Remove from List. To start over from scratch, click Clear List.

6. The number of minutes in the selected tracks is shown in the burn list which is next to Disc 1. A CD can hold about 75 minutes of audio. A bar graph and numbers shows how many minutes are free of the total available memory.

If you select more audio files that will fit on one CD, Windows 7 Media Player automatically starts a list for a second disc below the first. You need to remove one or more tracks from the list if you want to burn only one disc.

7. Now click the Start Burn button on the Command Bar when you’re ready to create a CD.

8. The burn progress bar is shown at the top of the Burn list. Let the burn complete before you go on to other tasks. If the disc doesn’t automatically come out you need to push the button on the tray or right-click over the CD title and click Eject. Now close the Burn pane by clicking the Burn tab.

The disc will be unusable if you don’t let the burn complete but you can click the Cancel Burn button to stop mid-burn.

View Pictures in Media Player

Media Player displays more types of media than just music. To view pictures in Windows 7 Media Player, You need to click Pictures in the Navigation pane on the left.

Using Media Player, you can

Make new playlists of pictures with or without music.

Listen to music and look at pictures at the same time.

Copy or burn pictures to CD.

Sync pictures to a media player or an digital MP3 player that also has a screen for pictures, such as a Microsoft Zune.