Burn, baby, burn! (Disc-o inferno) (CDBurnerXP)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	CDBurnerXP
Date:	04/04/08 (261 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, reliable, supports loads of formats

Disadvantages: Requires Dot Net Framework

Nero had failed me once too often. I was trying to burn an ISO image that was right at the limit of the available CD space, and Nero fell over and died at least half a dozen times, taking a CD with it each time. Damn you, Nero, you piece of crap software!

When I calmed down, I decided that I needed a replacement and at a reasonable price. My search took me to Google and the first in the list of results was CDBurnerXP. The site was colourful, well designed and looked professional (always a good thing for first appearances), but most importantly, there was a lot of information on what the program could do and what CD/DVD devices were supported. I always think that a company that makes information available this easily has something going for it. As the product itself is free, I downloaded it to see if it was any good. The package itself was surprisingly small - just over 2MB (compared to Nero and other professional packages which can run into hundreds of MB).

Installation was slightly dodgy as the program initially refused to be installed until I had also installed the .Net (Dot Net) Framework, version 2.0 or greater. I installed the current version (version 3.5), but that was a 61MB download, so be wary if your internet connection isn't terribly fast or if you don't update Windows often. However, you might be lucky and have this installed already anyway as other pieces of software require it.

Once that was installed correctly, CDBurnerXP installed without any issues.

The interface is similar to other CD burning programs, but perhaps slightly less cluttered or complicated. CDBurnerXP appears to concentrate more on the actual burning aspect than other stuff like CD cover creation and other such extras. If you're used to other CD or DVD burning software using Nero or other commercial packages, then you'll be up and running in next to no time. I found that creating lists of things (data) to burn to CD was extremely easy, as was the burning of ISO images, which is pretty much all I use these packages for.

Certainly, from my own experiences, it's burned everything I've asked of it without hassle over the past couple of months, including those pesky ISO files mentioned above. I've used it with both Windows XP and Windows Vista on a range of different blank CDs and DVDs without any issues whatsoever. It's less bloated than Nero and arguably just as quick and, because of its success rate, I'd have to say a lot better.

While the features list is extensive for burning things to CD and DVD (including Blu-Ray should you be rich enough to own a burner), it won't have the fancy bells and whistles from the bloated big boys like Nero (which I never use, to be honest), but it's free and easy to use.

Summary: Excellent, free disc burner that puts commercaial products to shame

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