How Do I Disable UDF in Windows?

If you've installed a third-party UDF reader, then the exact details of how you disable that will depend on which one it is. This page is devoted, instead, to the problem of disabling the built-in Windows support for UDF. Note that doing this may make Windows unable to read UDF media (most notably, most DVDs), so it is presumed that you really know what you're doing if you're reading this.

Windows 98, Windows 98SE, and Windows ME

For these operating systems, a standard Windows configuration utility provides a "nice" interface for disabling UDF support.

Select "Run..." from the Start menu, and enter "msconfig" before pressing the OK button. This will start the msconfig utility. On the Advanced Setting tab, select "Disable UDF File System" then click OK. Finally, reboot your system for the change to take effect.

Windows XP

The only solution I could find for Windows XP is brutal: deleting a registry key. The usual warnings apply. Edit the registry at your own risk. Make backups before you do this (duh!).

Run the registry editor. Locate the "Udfs" key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE->SYSTEM, CurrentControlSet, Services. Delete that key. Reboot.

See Also

You may also want to read all about UDF readers.

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