HOWTO – browse the Zune in Windows Explorer

Here’s a decent screencast that shows you step by step how to alter a few registry settings so that your Zune will show up in Windows just like a normal external USB drive.

Step 1.
Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn’t running.

Step 2.
Open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting “run”. Type regedit and hit “OK”

Step 3.
Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemControlSet001 EnumUSB

Step 4.
Right Click on the USB folder and select Find
Search for “PortableDeviceNameSpace”. This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_############_-_########_-_ ########_-_########Device Parameters within the above …USB The ##’s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune

Step 5.

Change the following values:
• EnableLegacySupport to 1
• PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0
• ShowInShell to 1

It’s explained in more detail at the end of the video, but for some people the user will get a device locked error when trying to drag files to or from the device. Starting up the Zune software and syncing a large file, then killing the process from the task manager mid-sync will trick the Zune into thinking it’s unlocked and allow you to access it from explorer.