Disable Unused DVD Drives in Windows

One of my laptops has a standard DVD drive on it that never gets used. Well it does, but only once in a blue moon. My trusty dusty, handy dandy disk drive is definitely a keeper, but… I like to keep things organized and clutter-free, so if I’m not using something I don’t want to see it in my screen workspace. I’ll just disable it, which will hide it from Windows Explorer and only temporarily enable it when and if I need to use it. Here’s how…

1. Hit the Start Menu and type ‘Device Manager’.

2. Hit Enter or click the Device Manager link that appears.

3. In the Device Manager Window, find DVD/CD-ROM Drives.

4. Click the arrow on the left to reveal your DVD drives.

5. Right-click the desired drive and select ‘Disable device’ in the context menu.

6. You’ll get a warning asking you do you really wanna do it. Hit Yes. Of course we do!

7. The drive entry will now have a black arrow to the left. This means disabled.

** If you need to re-enable it later, just right-click the entry and select ‘Enable Device’.

Restart your computer and check ‘This PC’ to see the changes.

That’s it… Peace Out!