Ripping a CD Using Windows Media Player

You can rip a CD using Windows Media Player in about 10 minutes. If you don't know what ripping a CD is, let me explain. Ripping a CD is taking a CD and copying it to your computer's hard drive. You put the CD in the CD Drive and it copies the songs off of the CD on to the computer. This way you can put your collection of CDs on your computer and you can play your music without having to put the CD in the drive. In this guide I will show you how to rip a CD using Windows Media Player.

Place the CD that you want to rip in your CD Drive. Next you will need to open your Windows Media Player. When the player loads, click Tools > Options at the top of your window. When the Options window pulls up, click the Rip Music tab. Click the Change button to change where the player will rip your music to. You can make a folder on your desktop and have it ripped to that. When you are done with that, click the Apply button and then the OK button.

Next, you will need to click the Rip tab at the top of your Media Player. When you click the Rip tab you will see the list of your songs in that window. Click the tracks that you want to rip to your computer. If you want to rip all the tracks to your computer then click on all the tracks. Make sure that each track that you want to rip to your computer has a checkmark beside it.

So now you have the tracks selected that you want to rip. At the top of your Windows Media Player you will see a link that says Rip Music. Click that link to begin ripping the music. You will see the process of each track being ripped.

This will rip the music to your computer as a wav file. If you do not have much room on your computer you may want to rip the music as MP3s. MP3s are smaller in size and save space on your computer. They play the same as wav files. To save the music as MP3s, go to the top of your Media Player and click Tools > Options. When the window pops up, click on the Rip Music tab. Drop the box down under Format and select MP3. Then click the Apply button and then the OK button. That will rip your music to your computer as a MP3 instead of a wav file.