The same applies for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Simply double click (click the left mouse button twice) on the cd drive you want to open to see the contents. The drive with nothing in it has no grey text as it is empty. The only difference may be a name, however in this case there is a string of grey text saying how much free space is on the drive. Some compact discs will show a unique icon so you can tell where they are, however a data cd will look similar to an empty cd drive. When my computer appears you will see all drives on your computer. Simply go to the start menu, choose my computer or computer for Windows Vista. If your cd does not open automatically then you can open it through my computer. How do you open a compact disc when auto play does not work? Windows XP CD auto play options are very different to Windows Vista. See the screenshots below for more details. After you have set your options press apply and then ok. If you choose music you can choose to play the music, open the folder to view files, or take no action at all. You can choose to print pictures from a cd, extract them to a folder, view a slide show, and so on. If you choose pictures from the list, the actions will change to things you can do with pictures. This is where you can change what happens when you insert a cd.Music files, Pictures, Video Files, Mixed content, and Music CD. Press the drop down arrow to see your choices.Right click on it and choose properties from the menu.
Go to the start menu, choose my computer.Choose your action for each process by pressing the drop down arrow to choose form the list.Go to the start menu, choose control panel.How to change the Compact disc auto play options? Windows Vista This screenshot was taken from Windows Vista, however in Windows XP it looks very similar. To see the contents of the compact disc that you have just inserted simply press on Open folder to view files. This will enable you to choose what action to take with the cd. Sometimes an Autoplay dialog box will appear automatically when you insert a cd. How to open a compact disc automatically to see the contents? If you have a game CD it will most likely open and show up on the screen. Also if there are music files such as mp3’s, you can play them from the disc. Obviously if the compact disc is blank there will be nothing to see, however if there are files you can view, copy, and paste them to your computer. When you insert a compact disc into your cd drive in your computer there are a few ways to view the contents of the cd.