Microsoft offers several no-cost tools for burning DVDs and CDs. For example, if you insert a blank, writable disc AutoPlay will display a menu with options for burning audio or data discs. Windows Media Player can also be used for burning discs, click the Burn tab on the right as shown in the image below. Then drag audio or video files from the center pane to the list on the right. Click Start burn to burn the disc.
After the jump, more CD and DVD burning tools, including Movie Maker and ways to burn ISOs.
Microsoft offers a variety of free applications at Windows Live including Movie Maker. Movie Maker is a simple tool for creating movies and slideshows. You can combine video clips, photos, and audio files; Movie Maker includes a variety of transition effects, the ability to overlay text, and to adjust the lighting and contrast of videos. You can also burn completed movies to disc from within the program. You can click on the DVD icon on the ribbon or select Burn a DVD from the Save movie menu, as shown below.
Those are basic tasks though, what if you want to do more sophisticated things when burning discs like creating a bootable DVD or editing an ISO image that you downloaded? Winzip is able to open ISO image, you can use it to copy files from within an ISO image but it does not include features for creating or modifying them. UltraISO is designed to do exactly that. UltraISO is designed for creating, editing, and converting both bootable and non-bootable ISO images. One feature that I find particularly useful is the ability to burn and an ISO image to a USB drive, its very convenient to have a bootable USB drive with antimalware and troubleshooting tools. For example, you might want to burn the ISO image I describe in Creating a Custom DVD or CD for Eliminating Viruses and Spyware to a thumb drive that you carry around in case one of your less computer proficient relatives asks for help when you’re visiting. In Explorer, Right-click the ISO image and select Open with UltraISO. In the Local: pane in the lower right select the thumb drive, then open the Bootable menu and select Write Disk Image, as shown below. The Write Disk Image dialog box will appear, click Write to write the ISO image to the USB drive.
