How can I disable the internal xp cd wizard and writer? Do I need to go into the registry? It does not seem to show up in the Add/Remove Windows Components

if it's not appearing in ad/remove program then:

Go to C:\Windows\Inf folder.
In the right pane, scroll down to sysoc.inf. open the file with notepad.
It will look like…
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7

Word "HIDE" in an entry hides that application from Add/Remove Programs dialog box. To add Pinball to the Add/Remove menu, delete the word HIDE from its entry. Leave the commas that surround it.

Save the file. You can check for the new entries in the Add/Remove Programs dialog box after you restart your computer.

Right click the Program's shortcut/ Properties to gain the target path where the application folder is located. Delete the folder.

Go to Start/Run/Msconfig/Startup and make sure it is not listed or checked there. If so, uncheck it.

Remove the program listing from registry by going here…
Start/Run/Regedit

For items that were in the Start menu, Programs, Startup folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupfolder. You'll find a subkey for each disabled item.

For items loaded from the Registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg. Again, you'll find a subkey for each disabled item.
Again while in Regedit, navigate to this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications. If the program is listed, right click, delete.
Go to Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options/File Types. If the program file type is listed, either use Change or Delete.

You should be able to simply;

Open Device Manager (Start, Run, type in devmgmt.msc, Enter)
Click the + on the optical drives to expend it
Pick the device you don't want and R-Click, choose Disable
Exit Device Manager, close anything else open, and reboot.

Why do you want to do this? Is it causing a problem? If so, what problem?

If you uncheck Enable CD Recording on this drive in the CD drive properties dialog, that disables the built-in XP CD burner, but does not prevent you from using other burner software (Roxio, Nero, Ahead, etc.)

See here: Ed Botts, Windows XP CD Burning Secrets

The way I read things is he wants to ".... disable the internal xp cd wizard and writer"

My Post#3, and your Post#4, outline the procedure for this.

I think he probably has an external optical device which he prefers using.

I read it as not want the built-in cd writer software. Ah well, hopefully will come back and clarify. One or the other should do it though.

Originally Posted by Ztruker

I read it as not want the built-in cd writer software. Ah well, hopefully will come back and clarify. One or the other should do it though.

This is how I read it too. Why do you want to disable this? Just because windows has the option to burn discs doesn't mean that you have to use it. So if you don't want to use it why not just use something else and leave the rest of your computer alone (as compared to editing configuration files or the registry)? BTW if you really, really want to edit configuration files or the registry you should back them up first!!! The ability to burn disks doesn't run from the registry like contactsophie described that I know of however it might be configured in the registry and probably is. It's built it so I doubt that there is really anyway to remove it (but I might be wrong). However I fail to see why you'd want to remove it especially if you have to risk damaging your system to do so. Is it causing problems?