Change optical drive names in Windows 7

Question

I seem to recall in some version of Windows, that I was able to assign names to my optical drives for when they aren't in use. I'm now running Windows 7 Ultimate x64, and trying to find that functionality again. Was it a figment of my imagination, or is it just somewhere I haven't looked?

To be clear, I'm looking to change the name of the drive - not the letter. For example, a drive that currently shows in Explorer as "BD-ROM Drive (E:)" I would like to change to "DAEMON Tools Drive (E:)".

Answer 1

Not the perfect solution, but you can go to the registry and look for:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

1. There, create a new key called DriveIcons.
2. Within that key, create another one named like the drive letter you want to change the name for (e.g. C)
3. Within that key, create another one named DefaultLabel
4. Right click and Modify the key's value. There, enter the desired label name. We'll take My own Label
5. Close the registry editor. The settings should be applied immediately. If not, first try to just refresh the Computer window by hitting F5 or -- in Windows Vista or 7 -- clicking Alt -> View -> Refresh. If that doesn't work, a reboot will certainly do.

Effect on local drives

Before:

After:

Effect on optical drives

Unfortunately, it doesn't work perfectly on optical drives, only appending the label to the drive's name and letter:

To undo, remove the key named like the drive.

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