How to write a CD

These instructions show how to write three files to CD using Easy CD creator.(Buy from Amazon)
The process is similar with other CD writing software.

Our aim is to write a CD which will autorun a file called start.htm.

To do this we need to write three files to CD.

• start.htm (an html webpage)
• autorun.inf (required by windows to autorun files)
• starterfile.exe (software which enables html, and other files, to be autorun)

If you have Windows XP then this has built-in CD burning.

Step 1 - Download example files

Right click on each link and select "Save Target As" to download each file to your PC.

1 autorun.inf (1KB)
2 start.htm (13KB) [ Note: ensure you save this as start.htm and not start.html ]
3 Evaluation copy of starterfile.exe (208KB)

These are small files and won't take long to download.

Step 2 - Using Easy CD Creator

Open Easy CD Creator.
On our Windows PC we selected Start, Programs, Roxio Easy CD Creator 5, Appliations, Easy CD Creator.

In the top window of Easy CD Creator we selected the directory containing our three downloaded files.
Click on "Select source files" to choose the appropriate directory.

We are writing these three files to CD: autorun.inf, start.htm and starterfile.exe
and once these are selected this stage is complete.

Step 3 - Using Easy CD Creator continued

Once the three files are selected then click on the "Add" arrow.
This specifies the files which will be written to CD.

In the bottom window of Easy CD Creator there should be the three files we will write to CD.

Step 4 - Using Easy CD Creator continued

Then put a blank CD into your recordable CD drive and click the record button

A dialog box similar to the one shown below will appear.
Click on the "Start Recording" button to write the files to CD.

When the process is complete you will see a dialog box like this.

Click the "OK" button and if a dialog box appears asking to "Save CD Project changes" just select "NO".

Now the three files have been written to CD.

Step 5 - Playing the CD

Eject and then insert the CD that has just been written
It will autorun the file start.htm

Firstly, because we have used the unregistered version of StarterFile we get a small popup dialog box

The registered version of StarterFile doesn't produce this popup dialog box but just launches the webpage.
The registered version of StarterFile can be purchased online in just a couple of minutes.

This is the webpage which has automatically been loaded.
Internet Explorer is associated with .htm file extensions so the webpage (start.htm) has been loaded into Internet Explorer.

This is a screen shot of the webpage start.htm

Step 6 - Registering StarterFile

The registered version of StarterFile can be purchased online in just a couple of minutes.

As well as starting html webpages, StarterFile also autoruns other files including Adobe PDF files.

Step 7 - Autorun your own web page or web site

The easiest way to autorun your own web page is to copy the home page of your site to start.htm

If you are writing a website to CD you should ensure that all your links are relative links.

This is a relative link <a href="fileX.htm">FileX</a> which will work if fileX.htm is written to the CD in the same directory.

Absolute links like these WILL NOT WORK
<a href="http://www.trah.co.uk/fileX.htm">FileX</a>
<a href="www.trah.co.uk/fileX.htm">FileX</a>

Alternatively, you could edit autorun.inf and specify an alternative file.
If you do edit autorun.inf be very careful: it is essential to use an identical format.