Technical information

Windows 8 For Dummies, Dell Pocket Edition

DVDs come in both R and RW formats, just like CDs,

so the preceding R and RW rules apply to them, as

well. Most DVD burners sold in the past few years

can write to any type of blank CD or DVD.

Buying blank DVDs for older drives is chaos:

The manufacturers fought over which storage

format to use, confusing things for everybody.

To buy the right blank DVD, check your comput-

er’s receipt to see what formats its DVD burner

needs: DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, or DVD+RW.

Copying files to or from a CD or DVD

CDs and DVDs once hailed from the school of simplic-

ity: You simply slid them into your CD player or DVD

player. But as soon as those discs graduated to PCs,

the problems grew. When you create a CD or DVD,

you must tell your PC what you’re copying and where

you intend to play it: Music for a CD player? Photo

slide shows for a TV’s DVD player? Or files to store on

your computer?

If you choose the wrong answer, your disc won’t

work, and you’ve created yet another coaster.

Here are the Disc Creation rules:

✓ Music: To create a CD that plays music in your

CD player or car stereo, you need to fire up the

Windows 8 Media Player program and burn an

audio CD.

✓ Photo slide shows: Windows 8 no longer includes

the Windows DVD Maker bundled with Windows

Vista and Windows 7. To create photo slide-

shows, you now need a third-party program.

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