I have been using Nero Burning Rom for a long time. It used to be a free giveaway with every CD or DVD burner that I bought over the years and I’m currently using version 7 something of it on my computer. Nero is a good program, really. It is just a little bit slow and comes with lots of excess that I would never need nor touch in my whole life. I know that there are dozens of free burning applications available for Windows and I thought I ask you which you do prefer and which you think is the best free burning software currently on the market.
Let me explain the functions that I really need it to support. The software should be able to burn CDs and DVDs both in image formats like ISO or IMG but also folders and files for archiving purposes. It should be able to burn music CDs although I rarely use that feature nowadays. It would be nice if it would have one or two context menu entries that would allow me to burn images right from the context menu.
That’s really all I need. Everything else would be a bonus unless it would slow down the application. A perfect application would load as fast as possible, show no splash screen and let me pick what I want to do right away. Now it’s your turn, what is the best free burning software in your opinion ?
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38 Responses to “Ask The Readers: Best Free Burning Software”
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i use star burn free edition… burn aware is also good but i prefer star burn.
I tried a program from Ashampoo, can’t remember the name though. There’s a free version and it was really good.
I use DeepBurner. Its easy, fast and portable.
If you use Total Commander, simply install the CD/DVD Burner plugin.
The simpliest solution. ;]
InfraRecorder – open source, fast and easy.
http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/
FinalBurner is worth a try.
It supports CD, DVD and Dual Layer, BlueRay, burns ISOs, etc.
It’s also possible to convert many audio and video formats before burning.
InfraRecorder
Ashampoo Burning Studio Free
http://www.download.com/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-Free/3000-2646_4-10776287.html
IMHO, this is currently the best free burning program.
http://cdburnerxp.se/features
I use Ashampoo Burning Studio 6.6 Free Edition, tried a few others but this one is the one I settled on.
You can burn files/folders directly from Windows Explorer. Just drag and drop files into the DVD/CD burner’s drive.
As to music CD’s, you can just use the Windows Media Player. For home made movies, use Windows Movie Maker. These two comes with Windows 98, XP or Vista.
ISO’s are a different animal. You can download the ISO burning GUI from SourceForge.net here https://sourceforge.net/projects/isoburn/
As to ripped movies, just use the free version of DVDFab.
CDBurnerXP http://cdburnerxp.se/ , latest version is pretty solid (old ones were somewhat bad judging by feedback from that time) and has very clean and productive interface. I hadn’t chosen it after comparing with bunch of others and had no urges to find something better… So it’s either pretty good or simply fits my needs. :)
>If you use Total Commander, simply install the CD/DVD Burner plugin.
As far as I know there is one very outdated and unstable and one shareware from ComplexNT.
Shareware file manager+shareware burning plugin is kinda overkill when person needs something freeware for basic burning tasks. :) I also doubt it works with audio.
deepburner portable
easy, fast and good
Give ImgBurn a try.
InfraRecorder and CDBurnerXP
Both free for personal and commercial use. No advertisements or banners. Usual data, ISO and copying functions.
InfraRecorder(for windows!!) all the way…
plus its open source…
I’m a big fan of CDBurnerXP, but Infrarecorder is also free and offers most of the same features.
I actually work at Tiger Direct, so I can say that Nero Burning Rom still comes with all our DVD/CD burners as free software.
I, however, use a program called CD Burner XP. It’s a free download that’s very simple to operate. However, it’s primarily for cd’s and data dvd’s only.
http://cdburnerxp.se/
I’ve been very happy using ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/). It’s fast and has a simple interface. Once installed, you can right-click on image files and start the burn right from there. And you can easily create an image from individual files for later (or immediate) burning. (Yes, I know I sound like a commercial… I swear I’m just a user of the software and not the author ;) )
ImgBurn, burn images and FILES.
ImgBurn
PowerLaser Express..no installation
You must try Ashampoo Burner Free Edition v6 or v7 (latest) edition with more features.
However, IME you’ll find it hard to find an alternative to Nero Ultra Edition.
Infrarecorder is great. I have had no problems with it. It can burn images, but I like IMGburn more for that.
I use BurnAware Free Edition, and I like it, and it has a nice easy to use interface.
ImgBurn… full featured and easy to use.
Are these all softwares that can be used to burn a DVD to play in a DVD player as well?
For DVDs, I use Vista’s native Windows DVD Maker. It’s slow, but it has beautiful menus and the results are always flawless.
For CD burning, I will use any program that will allow custom mixing of music files.
I’m like you – I just use Nero because it’s always there! I’ve tried ImgBurn, Infrarecorder,Starburn, CdBurner XP Pro, Burnaware, Deepburner, Finalburner and the only one that came close was Ashampoo.
@Mosey – It really depends on your DVD player. Some of the “newer” ones are DivX compatible, and in those ones you can just burn .avi files to DVD and have them play. Otherwise, you’ll have to convert all of your movies/videos to DVD format, which essentially separates the audio and video into .vob files. Once you have them converted into that format, you can even burn them as data and it will still work.
Nero! As the saying goes, 150 million @/%$*&@)!( can’t be wrong!
@/%$*&@)!( = replace with any word you deem appropriate. lol :)
@Lorissa – do you use the full version of Nero? Or the software that came with your computer/drive.
I’m still using Nero 6. I got some other “spare” burners, but still no-one impress me to move from Nero.
@Angelo R. – Full
@Angelo.R: Thank you for the explanation :) It really helps!
ashampoo has problems with long folder names
Imgburn. Just started to test free alternatives to Nero. Small, fast AND it can burn images OTHER than .iso only… (e.g. .cue which is very popular too).
Of course I haven’t tested them all :p