Vista does DVD RW

And it does them VERY well!

If you ever fooled with your older computers, you may have thought those Read/Write (RW) CDs and DVDs (can be recorded over and over, and erased and re-recorded) were the best thing since sliced bread... It sure sounded easy enough. Just put one in and let your software (usually Roxio that came with your machine) format the thing so you could use it like a big fat floppy drive, except the formatting part took so darn long it almost didn't seem worth the hassle.

I don't know what happened with Vista, but whatever it was, I am all for it. Using read/write DVDs is a joy now. Just stick your blankie into your dvd drive and follow the yellow brick road, letting Vista take care of all the hard work. When the AutoPlay message box appears, choose Burn files to disc using Windows.

The next window you will see will give you a chance to name your blank DVD or CD. It will also give you the option to format it for the Live File System. This is the new magic choice in Vista that will format your CD or DVD in much less time than you have ever seen before, and when it is finished, you will have a recordable CD or DVD you can use like a big fat extra drive, only this one will be a lot more portable!

To use your fresh blank DVD or CD, just drag files into the blank area. The files will immediately be copied. You won't need to click "Write these files to CD" at all. They will already be there. When you are finished and ready to eject your DVD, a special popup will appear letting you know Vista is "closing" the session so it will be able to be used on other machines. Each time you insert that recordable DVD, Vista will "remember" and let you treat it like a portable drive. You will be able to drag other files to it, as well as delete files you no longer want on it. Now isn't that special? I sure think so!

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