How to play a CD on a computer (with pictures)

2023 Author: Martin Macey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 06:41

This article will show you how to play audio CDs on Windows and Mac OS X computers.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: How to Play CD in Windows

Step 1. Press the Eject button on the optical drive

It is usually located on the front of the drive in the lower right corner.

Step 2. Place the disc in the tray, label side up

Step 3. Close the tray

To do this, click on it or click the "Extract" button again. In most cases, the tray will be closed using a special motor; on some laptops, the tray will have to be closed manually.

Step 4. Click on Choose what you want to do with your audio CD (or a similar option)

If this notification does not appear, you have already told the system what to do when you insert an audio CD.

You can change the program that will automatically start when you insert a CD in the Control Panel

Step 5. Click Play Audio CD

The program in which the disc will be played is displayed below. If you have multiple media players installed on your computer, a list of programs is displayed. Windows Media Player is included in all versions of Windows.

Step 6. Start Windows Media Player manually if the AutoPlay window is not open

Press ⊞ Win and enter "Windows Media Player".
Select "Windows Media Player" from the list.

Step 7. Double click on the audio CD in the left pane

The disc starts playing with all songs displayed in the center of the window.

Step 8. Move the volume slider in the Windows Media Player window

This will adjust the volume for CD playback. Note that the Player volume slider is not linked to the system volume slider. Therefore, first adjust the volume of the system, and then change the volume in the Player.

Part 2 of 4: How to set up autoplay in Windows

Step 1. Open Control Panel

This process depends on the system version:

Windows 8/10: Right-click on Start and select Control Panel from the menu.
Windows 7 and earlier: Click Start and select Control Panel from the menu.

Step 2. Click on AutoPlay

If this option is not available, open the View menu (in the upper right corner) and select Large Icons or Small Icons.

Step 3. Scroll down to the CD section

Step 4. Open the Audio CD menu

Step 5. Choose what should happen when you insert the audio CD

Step 6. Open the Sound Enhanced CD menu

Step 7. Choose an action to improve your audio CD

Step 8. Click Save

The actions you choose will be the main actions when you insert the audio CD.

Part 3 of 4: How to Play a CD in Mac OS X

Step 1. Insert the disc into your computer's optical drive

In this case, the disc label should face up.

Most Mac laptops have a disc slot (optical drive without a tray), and some Mac desktop computers have a slide-out tray

Step 2. Click on the iTunes icon in the dock if this program does not start automatically

Step 3. Click on the CD icon

You will find it in the top bar of icons in the iTunes window.

Step 4. Click the Play button

The CD starts playing.

Step 5. Move the volume slider to adjust the volume

The slider is at the top of the window, next to the playback controls.

Note that the iTunes volume slider is not linked to the system volume slider. Therefore, first adjust the system volume, and then change the volume level in iTunes

Step 6. Remove the disc when finished

This can be done in several ways:

press the "Eject" button on the keyboard;
press ⌘ Command + E;
click on your desktop, and then click File> Check Out.
drag the CD icon to the Trash icon (on the desktop); apply this method only if the CD icon is on the desktop.