Vista - Burning Files with Windows Vista

How do I stop Vista (Ultimate, 32 bit) from adding "desktop.ini" files
to CDs without breaking its ability to burn single files?

I tried deleting the "desktop.ini" file from the temporary CD files but
then Vista wouldn't let me burn a single file to the CD. When I used
Windows Explorer to select one single file and hit the "Burn" button in
the Windows Explorer toolbar, the CD drive displayed the file (with a
small blue arrow on its icon, I guess that's the "temporary file" icon)
but when I hit the "Burn to disc" button the "Burn to Disc" dialog told
me "There are no files to burn" (which was, of course, not true).

When I added a second file to the CD Vista suddenly allowed me to burn
the files. I just wanted to burn only one file to a CD and in the end I
had to add an empty text file to the CD.

Did you have an actual instance of a desktop.ini file being burned to a CD?


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

"Benjamin Mussler" <119@1.fl7.de> wrote in message
news:4dhxuno8eox4.dlg@1.fl7.de...
> How do I stop Vista (Ultimate, 32 bit) from adding "desktop.ini" files
> to CDs without breaking its ability to burn single files?
>
> I tried deleting the "desktop.ini" file from the temporary CD files but
> then Vista wouldn't let me burn a single file to the CD. When I used
> Windows Explorer to select one single file and hit the "Burn" button in
> the Windows Explorer toolbar, the CD drive displayed the file (with a
> small blue arrow on its icon, I guess that's the "temporary file" icon)
> but when I hit the "Burn to disc" button the "Burn to Disc" dialog told
> me "There are no files to burn" (which was, of course, not true).
>
> When I added a second file to the CD Vista suddenly allowed me to burn
> the files. I just wanted to burn only one file to a CD and in the end I
> had to add an empty text file to the CD.

I have a commercial DVD with a desktop.ini in the DVD root. It;s an MUI type
entry.
"Keith Miller MVP" <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:uChVXQRaHHA.5080@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Did you have an actual instance of a desktop.ini file being burned to a
> CD?
>
>
> --
> Good Luck,
>
> Keith
> Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
>
> "Benjamin Mussler" <119@1.fl7.de> wrote in message
> news:4dhxuno8eox4.dlg@1.fl7.de...
>> How do I stop Vista (Ultimate, 32 bit) from adding "desktop.ini" files
>> to CDs without breaking its ability to burn single files?
>>
>> I tried deleting the "desktop.ini" file from the temporary CD files but
>> then Vista wouldn't let me burn a single file to the CD. When I used
>> Windows Explorer to select one single file and hit the "Burn" button in
>> the Windows Explorer toolbar, the CD drive displayed the file (with a
>> small blue arrow on its icon, I guess that's the "temporary file" icon)
>> but when I hit the "Burn to disc" button the "Burn to Disc" dialog told
>> me "There are no files to burn" (which was, of course, not true).
>>
>> When I added a second file to the CD Vista suddenly allowed me to burn
>> the files. I just wanted to burn only one file to a CD and in the end I
>> had to add an empty text file to the CD.
>

Keith Miller MVP <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote:
> Did you have an actual instance of a desktop.ini file being burned to a CD?

No, it seems I was under the false impression that all files marked with
the small blue arrow would be transferred to the CD when I start the
burning process.

Besides, when I'm trying to burn the contents of my Documents folder to
a CD, Windows asks me if I want to overwrite the existing desktop.ini
file or not. If I choose "Copy and Replace" I end up with a desktop.ini
file with a small blue arrow, just like I do if I choose "Don't copy".
While both files look exactly the same, the former one will be burned
to the CD while the latter one will not. I think this is confusing, but
maybe it is just a matter of getting used to it.

On the other hand, why does Vista not allow me to burn a CD unless there
are at least two files marked with the small blue arrow (including the
"virtual" desktop.ini file)? Apparently the logic here is something
like "There always has to be a desktop.ini which will not be burned so
unless there is a second file there is nothing to burn at all"?

Is there any way to get rid of these "virtual" desktop.ini files (not
just hiding them via the "Hide protected operating system files"
option)?

"Benjamin Mussler" <119@1.fl7.de> wrote in message
news:h8iveao49ib2.dlg@1.fl7.de...
> Keith Miller MVP <k.miller79@no.spam.verizon.net> wrote:
>> Did you have an actual instance of a desktop.ini file being burned to a
>> CD?
>
> No, it seems I was under the false impression that all files marked with
> the small blue arrow would be transferred to the CD when I start the
> burning process.


Good to know it's not burned to the disk. I hadn't tried using Vista
burning until I checked it out to answer your post. I agree the display is
confusing.


> Besides, when I'm trying to burn the contents of my Documents folder to
> a CD, Windows asks me if I want to overwrite the existing desktop.ini
> file or not. If I choose "Copy and Replace" I end up with a desktop.ini
> file with a small blue arrow, just like I do if I choose "Don't copy".
> While both files look exactly the same, the former one will be burned
> to the CD while the latter one will not. I think this is confusing, but
> maybe it is just a matter of getting used to it.

I've noticed confusing messages just copying a folder that had a desktop.ini
to a new, empty folder. Vista seems to create or copy the desktop.ini, then
ask if you want to overwrite with the same file. I think it's a minor kink
that MS needs to refine.

> On the other hand, why does Vista not allow me to burn a CD unless there
> are at least two files marked with the small blue arrow (including the
> "virtual" desktop.ini file)? Apparently the logic here is something
> like "There always has to be a desktop.ini which will not be burned so
> unless there is a second file there is nothing to burn at all"?

Quite honestly, you're doing better than I am. Vista insisted I needed to
'format' a CD-R before it could burn to it. It burned a volume label & then
nothing else would go on the disk -- NICE COASTER!!!

> Is there any way to get rid of these "virtual" desktop.ini files (not
> just hiding them via the "Hide protected operating system files"
> option)?

I'm surprised Vista acts like it needs it. The desktop.ini in question only
changes the display name of the folder.

Now it's behaving differently than it did last night!!!! I'm gonna post
this & then play some more


--
Good Luck,

Keith
Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]

A similar thing happened to me the first time I tried to burn a CD in Vista. I saw the desktop.ini file in the ready-to-burn list and thought I'd dragged it there by mistake (new laptop --trying to get used to touchpad, etc) so I deleted this unwanted file. Wrong move -- all I got was a "There are no files to burn" message, even though I'd dragged a folder with 77 files to the CD. It apparently doesn't matter how many files there are total, just how many entries at the top level. And, yes, it doesn't care if the 2nd file really is desktop.ini. I created a little text file listing the contents and dragged it to the CD, so there were two entries at the top of the tree, my txt file and a folder . . . then the burn proceeded okay. And, yes, it burned the txt file to the CD. Go figure!