How do I disable DVD auto eject in Windows 7?

I just discovered an incredibly annoying "feature" of Windows 7 tonight. If you click on your optical drive in Explorer, and there is no disc in the drive, Windows 7 is kind enough to open the tray for you. I'm finding it hard to contain my rage over this idiotic design decision. WTF?

According to this post, this behavior was apparently introduced in Vista. The author posted a workaround, but I don't want a workaround. I want it to stop doing this. Like he, I have a case with a door that covers the drive bays. If it's closed, and I accidentally click on that optical drive, it knocks on that door 10 or 12 times before giving up.

Can this behavior be turned off in Windows 7?

raven

Posted 2009-10-16T02:02:08.763

Reputation: 5 135

This is incredibly annoying. I totally agree about this being a completely stupid design decision. +1 for the question/answer. Unfortunately I did use the built-in Windows burning functionality, and now I can't. – Rich – 2010-08-12T02:04:36.890

Why do you double click on the drive if there's nothing in it? :) – alex – 2009-10-16T05:18:12.170

Ha I never noticed that before in Vista. @alex I always assumed that you can browse the optical drive to drag-drop files for burning, if it's a DVD writer that is, even without media. I'm very confused as to why it doesn't support this anymore, did I just dream that? Strange indeed. – invert – 2009-10-16T06:24:10.337

5@alex: It doesn't even require a double click. A single click will do when you click on the drive in the folder tree. – raven – 2009-10-16T12:26:19.917

On my PC it only works with a double click. I tried it this morning, after reading your question; a single click does nothing. – alex – 2009-10-16T13:09:14.413

@alex, it depends on whether the single-click–activation function of Explorer is on or not. Besides, you could double-click it by accident, or think there is a disc in that has no icon or volume-label, or simply press Enter by accident on it while trying to navigate to a different volume (remember that not everybody has My Computer configured to display the same way). – Synetech – 2013-06-05T00:42:59.730

Answers

You could try disabling the Windows built-in burn functionality. Apparently, this will also stop the auto-eject feature. You can read more about it here.

alex

Posted 2009-10-16T02:02:08.763

Reputation: 16 172

1Thanks, that worked for me on Windows 7 (but how stupid that you have to disable useful functionality to get rid of this ridiculous annoyance). – EMP – 2012-04-01T00:55:29.960

His statement, "Only DVD RW drive will auto eject and open when clicked on its icon. DVD-ROM drive won’t has the effect." is wrong. I just tried it on a computer here at work that has a DVD-ROM drive (not a burner) and it popped right open. – raven – 2009-10-16T12:30:15.390

However, his instructions for removing the CD burning features did the trick. – raven – 2009-10-16T12:54:01.663

Glad to know it worked for you! – alex – 2009-10-16T13:08:26.147

I just tried it on a computer here at work that has a DVD-ROM @raven, exactly! Someone in this thread tried to explain the reasoning behind the behavior, but it only seems to affect laptops, not desktops, so as another person said, the rationale is bogus. – Synetech – 2013-06-05T00:45:31.737

your link is dead, here's an alternative and a superuser post about it

– BornToCode – 2013-11-16T20:22:46.907

My solution is to disable CD/DVD ROM from the Device Manager. But you have to re-enable when you're going to use it.

Hasan Gürsoy

Posted 2009-10-16T02:02:08.763

Reputation: 73