How to Burn a Music CD in Windows

Make a music CD in Windows without iTunes or Windows Media Player

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Updated on August 27, 2021

What to Know

Insert a blank disc into the optical disc drive and select the music files you want to burn.
Right-click a file and choose Send to > DVD RW Drive (X:) or CD Drive (X:). Select either With a CD/DVD player or Mastered > Next.
Go to Manage > Finish burning. Name the disc and select Next.

This article explains how to burn music to a disc in Windows without iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any third-party burning software. Instructions apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7.

How to Make a Music CD

To burn a CD without iTunes or any other audio-burning software, insert a disc, choose which songs to write to it, and then send them to the CD burner.

Insert a blank disc into the optical disc drive.

If you're asked what to do with the blank disc, ignore the message. The steps below will work fine even if you don't specify to Windows how it should behave when a new disc is inserted.
Select the music files you want to burn to the disc.

You can choose more than one file at once by holding down the Ctrl key. Press Ctrl+A to select all the files if you want to burn every file in the folder.

Don't open the music files. Instead, select them so that they're highlighted. Opening one will play it in your media player, but that's not how you'll burn the music to the CD.
Right-click one of the selected files and go to Send to > DVD RW Drive (X:) or CD Drive (X:) depending on the type of optical drive you have. The drive letter will vary depending on your system. Typically, it will be D:.

If the tray is empty, it opens automatically and prompts you to insert a disc. If so, do that and then return to this step.
Select either With a CD/DVD player or Mastered when asked how you want to use the disc, depending on the operating system you have.
Select Next. A File Explorer window appears with your selected files.

You can add more files to the list by copying them into this window. This is also when you can remove any files from the list if you don't want them to be burned to the disc.
Go to Manage > Finish burning in Windows 10 or Windows 8. For Windows 7, select Burn to disc at the top of the screen.
Enter a name for the disc.

You can also set the recording speed here, but leaving it at the highest speed (which is the default) is advisable unless you have a reason not to.
Select Next. A notification appears when the music finishes burning to the CD.

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