You Won’t Believe This Trick to Open and Close Your Optical Disc Drive Hands-Free!
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to insert or remove a CD or DVD from your computer, but you have your hands full? Maybe you’re cooking in the kitchen or typing up an important document, and you can’t spare a hand to press the button on your optical disc drive. Well, fear not! We have the solution for you.
Introducing the “Jedi Mind Trick” method for opening and closing your optical disc drive completely hands-free. Yes, you read that right. This trick will allow you to use the power of your mind (and a little bit of technology) to control your disc drive without ever touching it.
First, you’ll need to download and install a free program called “Ejector.” This program allows you to assign a keyboard shortcut to open and close your disc drive. We recommend choosing a shortcut that you can easily remember and access, such as “Ctrl + Alt + E.”
Once you have Ejector set up, it’s time to get your mind in the game. Imagine that you have a special power that allows you to control objects with your thoughts. Visualize yourself using this power to open and close the disc drive, and focus your mind on the keyboard shortcut you assigned.
Now, using your mental powers, press the keyboard shortcut. You should see your disc drive magically open or close, depending on which command you gave it. Congratulations, you’ve just performed the Jedi Mind Trick!
Of course, this trick isn’t really powered by the Force. It’s just a clever workaround that allows you to use a keyboard shortcut to control your disc drive without physically touching it. But it’s a fun and handy trick that can be a great party trick or time saver when you need to free up your hands for other tasks.
So the next time you need to insert or remove a disc from your computer, remember this “Jedi Mind Trick” method and impress your friends with your mental powers. And who knows, maybe someday we’ll all have the ability to control technology with our thoughts. Until then, let the Force be with you (and your keyboard shortcuts)!
Opening and closing your PC’s optical disc drive is simple; all you have to do is press the Eject button, and it will open/close. However, in this era of slackers, who actually has time to press a hardware button two times? In this article we will show you how you can open/close your optical disc drive using Windows shortcuts.
Use the Eject Option
Most probably you will already know about this option, but it is still worth mentioning. Windows has a built-in “Eject” button to push the drive tray out. Unfortunately, it seems Microsoft forgot to aDD the option to close the tray, so you will still have to manually put it back inside after inserting the disc. Don’t try to use the “Eject” option again; it will not put it back inside (many have tried and failed).
To do so, right-click on the optical disc drive icon inside “My Computer” and select “Eject” from the context menu. The tray will come out, and you can put the disc inside and then close it again manually. If you have more than one disc drive, right-click on the one that you want to open.
This little trick might not be much, but it will surely save you from that awkward one-second stance where you hold the disc closer to the drive without blinking and wait for the tray to come out.
Use a Third-Party Solution
Thankfully, developers heard the pleas of slackers and created utilities to easily open and close a disc drive with just the press of a key. While there are many tools available for this purpose, we are going to use Door Control by Digola.
Download the tiny utility and extract it to your desired folder. (It will be in .zip format.) Use the Door Control setup to install the program, and you will see the “Door Control” icon on the desktop.
When you launch the program, it will start working in the system tray. To open or close the disc drive, click on the “Door Control” icon in the system tray, and the tray will come out. After inserting the disc, click on it again, and it will close.
Door Control also lets you specify a key combination shortcut. Right-click on the Door Control icon in the system tray, and select “Hot Key” from the menu. Now, just enter the hot key which you would like to use and click “OK.” Whenever you would like to open/close the disc drive, just press the specified hot keys.
Warning: Please do not click on the Door Control icon multiple times or press the hotkey multiple times. It seems that the utility will process all the commands taken and will keep opening and closing the tray until all the given commands are processed. (I learned this the hard way.)
While Door Control doesn’t really take much resources, if you are not comfortable with software always running in the system tray, you might want to try NirCmd. It will let you create an opening/closing script to easily command the disc drive to open and close using separate key combinations (details available on the website).
Conclusion
Above are two simple methods to easily control your optical disc drive. The first method should work fine for most people, but if you really don’t like pressing buttons, then you should try a third party utility. However, a tray-closing button would have been highly appreciated from Microsoft. My kid always runs away after pressing the “Eject” button, and I am forced to move my 220-pound body to close it.
Do let us know in the comments if the above methods helped you in any way.
Karrar is drenched in technology and always fiddles with new tech opportunities. He has a bad habit of calling technology “Killer”, and doesn’t feel bad about spending too much time in front of the PC. If he is not writing about technology, you will find him spending quality time with his little family.
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