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How do I Limit and/or Disable CD/DVD Writing Capability?

Published: April 23, 2009
Updated: August 4, 2011
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1. To disable CD burning in Windows XP, open My Computer and right click the Optical Drive.

2. Click Properties in the drop-down menu, then navigate to the Recording tab. Uncheck the option Enable CD recording on this drive.

3. Alternatively, advanced users can disable CD burning through the registry. From the Start menu, choose Run, type Regedit, and press enter. Navigate to the following string -

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer Value Name: NoCDBurning Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value) Value Data: (0 = Allow CDR, 1 = Disable CDR)

3. Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'NoCDBurning' and edit the value according to the settings above.

4. To allow Limited User's access to writing CDs, from the Start menu, choose Run, type Regedit, and press enter. Navigate to the following string -

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

5. Look in the right pane for AllocateDASD and double click the entry. Set the value to 2.

6. In Windows XP Pro, this setting may also be adjusted by accessing Local Security Settings. From the Control Panel, highlight Administrative Tools and press enter.

7. Then double click Local Security Policy; in the left pane, navigate to Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options.

8. Look in the right pane for the value Devices: Allowed to format and eject removable media. Double click this value to access its settings.

9. Set the drop-down menu option to Administrators and Interactive Users, then press OK.