Relevant detail: this potential removal of the driver does NOT affect normal CD-R / DVD-R functionality. It’ll only prevent you from using them as if they were rewritable media.
I ripped a CD yesterday.
You didn’t use this driver. It’s not involved with reading discs or writing ISOs, only a specific floppy like mode available (not required) on certain combinations of drive and disc type.
Until 2021 when I got my new PC, I still had a bluray/cd/dvd burner, although I don’t recall ever using it for burning anything. I guess that era is finally getting laid to rest.
Also, way back when it was a requirement to burn CD’s and DVD’s in order to install operating systems like linux, I don’t ever recall using a CD-RW disc. I guess I thought of them a bit like potions in skyrim where by the end of the game I end up with hundreds of them and then never using them when I really needed to.
