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Removing the “You Have Files Waiting To Be Burned To Disc” message

FilesWaitingToBeBurnedQ: When I turn on my PC, I see the message “You have files waiting to be burned to disc.” How do I get rid of that message?

A: Whenever you tell your PC to copy files to a disc, Windows copies those files and hides the copies in a temporary folder. And those files sit there forever, waiting for you to insert your disc and complete the burning process. And until you insert that disc, you’ll keep seeing that annoying message.

But if you don’t want to burn the files to the disc — perhaps you chose the Burn command accidentally, for example — that nagging message remains in both Windows 7 and Windows Vista. You can usually get rid of the message by following these steps:

  1. Click the Start button, and click the Computer button.
  2. Right click on your CD or DVD drive and click “Delete temporary files.”
  3. Click Yes.

Advanced method: Windows stores copies of files waiting to be written to disc in this folder:

C:\Users\ANDY\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Burn

(Substitute your own User Account name for “ANDY” in the above example.)

Delete the files and folders waiting in the “Burn” folder, and the message will disappear.

Comments

Comment from Dwayne Butler
Time January 25, 2012 at 10:16 am

Had 3 files in this folder. Using your Advanced file path I was successful in removing two files but one remained. It yielded the error msg that it was open in another program.

Comment from Andy Rathbone
Time January 25, 2012 at 10:57 am

Dwayne: Try restarting your computer, then removing the leftover file from the file path. That should free up the file that’s being held open in another program.

Comment from Robert Bethune
Time March 6, 2012 at 10:19 am

How can I get rid of that idiotic message, once and for all, forever, so that I never see it again as long as I live? I KNOW when I have files waiting. It’s when I’m burning disks! I don’t need to be told so every ten seconds!

Comment from hetty
Time August 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm

I followed your advice, but the folder is empty and I can not find “delete temperary files.” What am I missing?

Comment from Dan
Time February 1, 2013 at 6:10 am

Thanks! The Advanced Path method worked great!

Comment from Peter O.
Time February 10, 2013 at 3:48 pm

THanks Andy the advanced path method did it for me

Comment from Joe
Time March 21, 2013 at 4:15 pm

Thanks Andy! That stupid message has been driving me batty!

Comment from oytun
Time November 8, 2013 at 9:36 am

tick show hidden files makes them visible…

Comment from hetty
Time August 18, 2012 at 3:00 pm

I followed your advice, but the folder is empty and I can not find “delete temperary files.” What am I missing?

Comment from phil
Time February 2, 2014 at 1:24 pm

Thanks a lot. It worked a treat.

Comment from Steve Doole
Time February 12, 2014 at 6:40 am

I do not have the ‘delete temperary files’ option either.
And I cannot see folder AppData – do I need ‘Administrator’ rights to see these?

Comment from Andy Rathbone
Time February 12, 2014 at 9:53 pm

> Steve: You don’t need Administrator rights to see those. However, Windows normally hides those files, because they’re considered housekeeping files that most people never need to bother with. To see them, you need to tell Windows to show you your “hidden files.” Let me know which version of Windows you’re using, and I’ll show you how to keep Windows from hiding that file.

Comment from Lynne
Time February 26, 2014 at 1:55 pm

Thanks a lot! I solved this annoying problem with your help.

Comment from shabaz
Time April 19, 2014 at 8:43 pm

Thanks buddy this message was driving me nuts. Its now fixed.

J

Comment from Seb Palmer
Time June 21, 2015 at 7:49 am

Hi Andy, I’m a Mac user, and was simply trying to use my wife’s laptop to burn a few PCs to CD. This message was driving me nuts (the whole rovers is utterly unlike using a Mac!). Thanks for such a clear, concise solution! Best, Seb

Comment from Seb Palmer
Time June 21, 2015 at 7:50 am

Damn predictive text! ‘rovers’ = process

Comment from Mike
Time April 4, 2017 at 1:45 am

Great fix – though like most – right click delete temp files does not apply to Win7.
The advanced path is the right path!

Comment from Taylor
Time November 25, 2017 at 4:21 pm

My folder is completely empty. There is no way to unhide anything and no “Delete temporary files” button whatsoever. No matter what place I look at I can’t fix this message because the fix literally tells me to click something that doesn’t exsist on my windows 7 computer

Comment from Hank S
Time March 5, 2018 at 2:55 pm

Thank you. After following many bad suggestions, I used your simple method and it worked like a charm in Windows 8.1.

Comment from Bob
Time September 19, 2018 at 3:03 pm

Many thanks! Easy fix when you’ve got a good sherpa. Good of you to point the way to the files and path to removing the message.

Comment from Charles Rathbun
Time March 6, 2019 at 1:52 pm

Nice Andy, Started up my old laptop and ran into this problem, All set set now thanks again…. PS nice last name there..

Comment from Luis Alvaro Araujo de Araujo
Time May 31, 2020 at 8:34 am

Sorry, it works once. Every time I reboot my computer, the folder and the file are there again.

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