If your Windows 10 computer has an optical drive and it is not showing up in the My Computer area, you can fix it by tweaking your registry editor. So, in this post, I am going to show you how to fix CD/DVD optical drive icon missing in Windows 10 inside File Explorer or This PC. What happens is that when you open File Explorer or My Computer, also known as This PC, you will not find the Optical Drive icon beside hard drive icons. This problem can be fixed by tweaking your registries a bit. There is more than one method to fix optical drive icon not showing problem in Windows 10 computer. However, even if you are using Windows 8/8.1 or Windows 7/XP/Vista running computer, this should work fine as well. Fix 1: Uninstall and Reinstall Drivers Instead of using the registry editor, we can try to uninstall and re-install the Optical Drive first. This is not only easier but also less risky than editing your registry entries. So, open Device Manager by searching it in Search/Cortana bar. Alternatively, press Windows Key + R, type in "devmgmt.msc" and hit enter. In the Device Manager, click View and select "Show Hidden Devices". Now locate DVD/CD-ROM drivers and expand it. Right-click on each device under it and select Uninstall. Next, locate, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, expand it. Next, right-click on each entry under it and click Uninstall. Once you have removed all the devices, now right-click in Device Manager and select Scan for hardware changes. Now the computer will look for supporting drivers for the devices and will be added back. Restart your computer, and you should have the optical drive back in My computer. Fix 2: Edit Registry Entries If the above method did not work for you, you could always try to edit your registry entries using the registry editor. Here is how to do it. Below there are a couple of solutions to fix optical drive not showing problem. Try each one of them until the problem is not resolved. Method 1: Press Windows Key +R, type "Regedit" and hit enter. It should open Registry Editor window. In the Registry Editor, navigate to this entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\ {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} From the right-side look for "UpperFiters" and "LowerFilters" strings. Delete both of them if you find it. Even if you find any one of them, delete it. Close Registry Editor and restart the computer. After the restart, you should have access to Optical Drives. Method 2: If you did not find "LowerFilters" and "UpperFilters" strings, follow this method instead. Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\atapi\ Now right-click on atapi key and select New > Key. Name the key as "Controller0". Select Controller0 key, Right-click in the empty area in the right-side pane and select New > DWORD Value. Name the DWORD as EnumDevice1 and set the value to 1. Hit enter to execute the command. Once the command is executed, close command prompt window and restart your computer.
