Double-click to open an audio recording application on your computer. If you don't have one already installed, you can use Audacity, a free, downloadable audio-recording program. Visit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows for more details.
Insert the tape you are wishing to transfer on to CD into the tape player, and press the "PLAY" button. Test your tape player's headphone or output jack by plugging headphones into them. Putting on the headphones should allow you to hear the audio playing from the tape. Please note that if your headphone plugs are too big or too small for your tape player's headphone jack, you will need to purchase audio plug adapters. These adapters allow you to increase or decrease the width of the plug and are available for purchase at local electronic retailers.
Press the tape player's "STOP" button once you are satisfied there is sound coming to your headphones from the playing of the tape. Remove the headphones and insert one end of the stereo audio cable into the headphone or output jack of the tape player, and the other end of the same audio cable into the computer's microphone audio input plug. Again, if the jacks do not fit into the plugs, you will need to purchase plug adapters to either increase or decrease the diameter size of the stereo plugs you want to use.
Click on the recoding application's "Record" button and press "Play" on your tape player. You should begin to immediately see on the computer screen the audio that is being captured and recorded onto your computer. Once you have recorded what you want from the tape player, click the "Stop" button on both the recording application and on the tape player itself. Save the recording as an MP3 audio file on your desktop by clicking on the "File" and then "Export as MP3" options located at the top of your recording application's main menu.
Open an audio-burning CD application on your computer and insert a blank, recordable CD of type CD-R into your computer's CD-burning device. Using the "File" then "Import" options on your CD-burning application, locate the MP3 audio recording on the desktop and double-click on it with your mouse to have the burning application accept it as the file you wish to burn. Then click on the audio-burning CD application's "Record" button to record the MP3 audio track onto the CD. When the CD is finished recording, the computer will automatically eject the burned CD as a way of telling you that the burn process is complete. Finally, play your burned CD on a CD player to ensure that the tape-to-CD transfer project has been properly completed.