IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service

Description:

Supports the burning of CD-ROM/RW through the IMAPI (Image Mastering Applications Programming Interface) without the need of 3rd party burning software, and used by Microsoft Media Player. (Also used by WinXP PowerToy ISO Burner)

Note to enable the builtin CD Burner for a limited user, one have to enable the setting “Devices: Allowed to format and eject removable media”:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \Software \Microsoft \Windows NT \CurrentVersion \Winlogon]
AllocateDASD = 2 (0 = Administrators only, 1 = Power Users, 2 = Normal Users)

More Info MS KB256592

Note if trying to burn/write a DVD-RAM in a DVD-RAM / CD-RW-Combo-Drive, then one have to open My Computer, right click the DVD-drive and select Properties, select Recording-tab and uncheck Enable CD recording on this drive, or else one will get this error (Because it tries to access the DVD as a CD-ROM):

*The disc in the drive is not a writable CD or it is full.

Please insert a blank, writable CD into drive D:\, or insert a disc with enough free space to hold all the files you have selected for writing to CD.*

More Info MS KB826510

Note if the CD-Writer is only recognized as a CD-ROM drive, then it will not allow recording. To force a CD-ROM drive to be recognized as a CD-Writer:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \Software \Microsoft \Windows \CurrentVersion \Explorer \CD Burning \Drives \Volume{GUID}]
Drive Type = 2 (1 = CD-R, 2 = CD-RW, 3 = CD-ROM)

Note if having more than one CD-/DVD-drive and one is incorrectly detected as a writer, then it might cause the actually CD-/DVD-writer not to function properly.

More Info MS KB316529

More Info MS KB279157
More Info MS KB294652
More Info MS KB297015
More Info MS KB306524
More Info MS KB308591
More Info MS KB309522
More Info MS KB324129

  • Manual, if using the builtin CD writer capabilities.
  • Disabled, if using 3rd party CD writer software (To avoid conflicts).
Default State:
  • WinXP: Manual.
  • Win2k3: Disabled.
Process Name:
  • imapi.exe (ImapiService)
Supports:
  • None
Depends:
  • None