How to burn CDs and DVDs for free using CDBurnerXP

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I remember that a couple of years ago when I wanted to burn a CD ( when DVD's appeared for the first time but I was considering them to expensive ) I was limited by a couple of important shareware players such as NERO. I said NERO because this is the best example ( in my opinion ). I never saw any free software that allowed me to burn CDs and DVDs for free, probably they existed but I never find one that I could use it to replace NERO. Well, things has changed after I discovered CDBurnerXP a free program that allows you to burn CDs and DVDs for free. I know that there are many, free alternatives to all shareware products but that doesn't mean that because it's free, it's better than a shareware one or vice versa. I am not going to say here that CDBurnerXP is better than other popular shareware CD/DVD burning tools. But I am pretty sure that it's at least at the same level with them. If I am able to write a CD or a DVD with the same information on it I guess I could say that this program does his job very well and it worths to be compared with important players. That being said, let's start to learn how to burn CDs and DVDs for free. All you need is to download CDBurnerXP from here and then to install it. Actually this is what I am going to do here, I will show you how to install CDBurnerXP in a step by step method and I will show you how to burn a MP3 CD. Supposing that you downloaded CDBurnerXP, make sure to open the setup file and you should see a window that says "Welcome to the CDBurnerXP Wizard" - "This will install CDBurnerXP on your computer", so make sure to click on the "Next" button :

Welcome to the CDBurnerXP Setup Wizard

Now you should see the second setup wizard window that displays the "license Agreement" so make sure to read it ( you can even print the license agreement if you use the "Print" button ) and if you agree make sure to check "I accept the agreement" and click on the "Next" button :

Licence Agreement window

It's now time to select a location to install CDBurnerXP on your computer, as you can see, the default location for this installation is in "C:\Program Files\CDBurnerXP". For any reason if you want to change this location, make sure to click on the "Browse" button. However, you can leave it as it is and you can click on the "Next" button :

$Select a different location for CDBurnerXP. The default location is in "C:\Program Files\CDBurnerXP" - You can specify a different location$

Now you should see a new window that is asking you which components to install, by default you can see a full installation. I chosed a "Compact installation" since I didn't wanted other languages installed, actually this is the only difference between a full installation and a compact installation, the languages that are being added to installation. Make sure to click on the "Next" button.

Select the components you want to install: clear the components you do not want to install. Click Next when you are ready to continue

Now you are being asked where to create the program's shortcuts, you can change this name if you want to, I chosed to leave it as it is. Again, click on the "Next" button to move on.

Setup will create the program's shortcuts in the following Start Menu folder - You can rename this folder

Select additional tasks for this installation, as you can see I chosed to create a desktop icon ( I didn't wanted to create a quick launch icon ). If you want to associate ISO (.iso ) files with CDBurnerXP you can check this option to. Click on the "Next" button to continue with the installation.

Select additional tasks you would like setup to perform while installing

Setup is now ready to begin installing CDBurnerXP on your computer. Click "Install" to continue with the installation, or click Back if you want to review or change any settings.

Ready to Install - Setup is now ready to being installing CDBurnerXP on your computer

After the program will be installed, at the end you should see a window that informs you that installation has been completed. Setup has finished installing CDBurnerXP on your computer. The application may be launched by selecting the installed icons. Click "Finish" to exit Setup.

Setup has finished installing - you can now choose to launch CDBurnerXP

When the program is being launched for the first time, you will be prompted by a small window that will ask you to select your language. The default language is english.

Select your language - the default language is English

Finally, here it is an image with CDBurnerXP launched for the first time. This is how the program will look when you will open it from now on. Let's continue with our article and let's see how to burn CDs and DVDs for free using CDBurnerXP. We reproduced the entire installation process ( setup ) and now I will show you how I managed to burn a CD with my favourite music. I will choose the first option the one called "Data Disc - Allows you to create ISO images, burn usual data discs, MP3-CDs and video discs". Don't forget to click on the "OK" button.

CDBurnerXP Program interface - from here you can choose an action

Right after that, from the left side of the program interface, navigate to the place were you keep your files. You can see the content of my folder displayed on the right side. Now all you have to do is to drag and drop with your mouse the files that you want to burn. If you have several folders drag them one by one or all of them right under that window that says "Drag and drop files here or use the "Add" button to add files to the compilation." You should also see a green space that indicates how much space is being occupied.

You can navigate, locate your files and use a "drag and drop"

If you're ready to burn the files, click on the "Burn" button located on the left side. You will see a new, small window that will ask you "How do you want to burn your disc ?". As you can see I chosed "Leave disc open - Allows you to add more data at a later time", if you don't want anyone else to be able to write additional data on your CD you can choose the second option "Finalise disc - No more data can be added later".

You can choose to "Leave disc open" or "Finalise disc"

You should see a progress window that will indicate you the burn progress like time elapsed, writting speed and the current file that is being burned.

CDBurnerXP progress

After the burn is complete, you will see another window that will tell you if the disc has been written ( burned ) successfully and the total time needed for this operation.

Burning is now complete

Finally, another window will appear ( this is the last window ) and I still don't know why this window appeared, probably it will remember the settings for future discs, however I chosed to close this window.

Burning options

That's it, the purpose of this article was to show you how to burn CDs and DVDs for free using CDBurnerXP but I considered that it would also be useful to show you how to install CDBurnerXP. As you can see, the installation process is a simple one and it's even simpler to burn a CD or a DVD with your favourite music or any other files. It's really a must have application on your computer and I would like to encourage any donations for this program if it's possible in order to encourage future releases for this software.