Can I burn a disc straight from Windows Explorer?

Yes. Turn on Burn by Zaweba's Explorer right-click commands, then right-click files or folders and choose Burn with Zaweba. Burn opens with them already on a new data disc, so you go straight to checking the options and pressing burn. Several selected items arrive together as one disc.

Starting from Explorer suits the way most people work: you're looking at the files already, so why open another program and find them again?

Setting it up once

The right-click commands are off until you choose them. Burn offers them the first time it starts, and you can turn them on or off any time in Settings (Ctrl+,). They're added only for your own Windows account, and switching them off removes exactly the registry keys Burn added.

Along with Burn with Zaweba on files and folders, you get Back up with Zaweba on folders, and Burn image with Zaweba and Mount with Zaweba on disc images.

From right-click to finished disc

Select the files and folders you want on the disc. Right-click and choose Burn with Zaweba. On Windows 11, if it's not in the first short menu, choose Show more options. Burn opens a data disc with your selection on it and the live capacity bar showing how much of the disc it uses.

Check the options if you like: the disc name, the file system, whether to finalise the disc, the write speed, and per-file verify, or save as an ISO instead of burning. Then burn. Progress shows on the taskbar button and the tray icon, and a chime and notification tell you when it's done, so you can carry on in Explorer meanwhile.

If the selection is more than one disc will hold, the capacity bar makes that obvious before you burn. You can remove items there, or switch to the Backup Assistant instead, which plans several discs, splits big files into numbered pieces and asks for each disc in turn. For a one-off disc to give someone, though, a right-click and a quick look at the options is usually all it takes.

Disc images and backups the same way

Images have their own command. Right-click an ISO and choose Burn image with Zaweba, and Burn opens ready to write it. Older formats like BIN/CUE and NRG are handled too, by way of an ISO made from them. You can also just double-click an image file to burn it.

For backups, right-click a folder and choose Back up with Zaweba. The Backup Assistant opens with that folder, and Burn plans the discs, burns them and checks every file. If you'd rather work from another Zaweba app, Disk Sort by Zaweba's Burn selection sends chosen files and folders to Burn in the same way, opening a data disc with them.

Burn by Zaweba is free software that works offline with no account. The right-click commands simply save you the trip through the home screen, and they're as easy to remove as they are to add.