The makers of Nero are now offering a stripped down version of Nero 9 for free on their website. Well, not totally free but if you give up an email address you can download and use the Nero 9 free edition. Nero 9 Free is only offering data disk burning and disk copying functionality. It still has a size of more than 55 Megabytes.

Nero 9 Free can be downloaded from the Nero website, or if that is preferred, from third party download portals like Softpedia where the download is also hosted. The benefit of downloading Nero 9 Free from these download portals is that no email address needs to be supplied before downloading the DVD burning software.

Nero 9 Free turns out to be Nero 9 Essentials which is a version of Nero that gets only distributed with hardware purchases. It should also be noted that the program will suggest to install the Ask Toolbar during installation. Make sure to uncheck the box if you do not want to install it.

Users who prefer lightweight might want to try out alternatives such as ImgBurn, Ashampoo Burning Studio Free or the recommendations in our best free burning software thread. Thanks Dante for the tip.

ImgBurn was recently updated to version 2.5 and the developer has published a huge list of changes, fixes and additions to that version. The program stays the same at its core which means it is still the lightweight DVD burning software that can be installed or used as a (unofficial) portable version instead.

Below are some of the more important changes introduced in this version of ImgBurn:

• An ‘Advanced’ input mode to build mode where you have total control over the layout of the disc and can add new folders, change names etc. (i.e. you’re no longer limited to burning an existing folder structure on your hard disc as-is)
• ImgBurn now adds itself to the context menu’s ‘Open With’ submenu for files it’s associated with.
• Support for burning CCD files.
• Support for building images using the ‘MODE2/FORM1/2352′ data type. (previously it only supported ‘MODE1/2048′)
• A check to ensure all the DVD Video files in a sequence are present. (i.e. it’ll prompt if VTS_XX_1.VOB and VTS_XX_3.VOB are present but VTS_XX_2.VOB isn’t)
• Detection of attempts to build Vista style OS installation discs (via the ‘sources\install.wim’ file) and the relevant prompting for conflicting settings, failing to make it bootable etc (same as an ‘I386′ install disc).

The new version of the DVD burning software can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website. It has a size of only 2 Megabytes, comes with many language translation files (e.g. German, Chinese, Russian, French and Spanish) and is compatible with all Microsoft operating systems from Windows 95 to Windows 7.

ImgBurn via Download Squad

A full version of Nero Burning Rom is required as well, it does not currently work with OEM versions of Nero and it is doubtful if Nero Micro and Nero Lite are supported but I cannot say that for sure.

The only other requirements are an operating system that is either Windows 2000 or Windows XP, no word on Windows Vista support yet.

This could come in handy for users who need or have a supported autoloader and burn multiple CDs and DVDs on a regular basis.

Update: The product is no longer available on the developer website. When you open it, you receive a 404 error. The product is no where to be found on the site, and it is likely that it has been discontinued. The QQhandy software on the other hand is still available on the site, but without product availability, it is not of use anymore either.

Update 2: DupliQ is again listed on the website, but in another location. The model can be loaded with up to 25 discs, with the autoloader capable of loading and unloading discs automatically.

DupliQ is the smallest portable CD, DVD and Blu-Ray auto-loader, according to the developer. The product weights about 10 pounds. The device retails on the developer website for $645 US Dollars.

This service is a indexing service that is being used by Nero Scout to provide fast access to the media library of the user on a computer. The real question is if it is beneficial to run an indexing service in the background all the time to speed up things when using Nero ? I would say that this is a waste of system resources (it can use more than 30 Megabytes of RAM when it’s indexing files) unless the computer would be solely used to download and burn media.

NMIndexingService.exe can be disabled in the following way. First disable Nero Scout as outlined in the article that I have written last month. After that use the CTRL R shortcut, type services.msc and search for the NMIndexingService in the list.

Make sure that service is stopped and set to either disabled or manual. To change the state right-click the service and select Stop if it is still started or select Properties to disable the service completely.

Another option would be to use Nero Micro or Nero Lite instead which have some of the program components removed by default.

Before I started removing it I had to find out why it was there in first place. What’s the purpose of Nero Scout ? It turns out that Nero Scout cataloges media files on the computer and stores the information in a database that is being used by other Nero applications. Something that I do not need at all.

Thankfully though it is quite easy to remove Nero Scout if you are using Nero 8. Just start the Nero Scout application from the Start Menu, it’s hidden in the Nero Toolkit menu. Once the application has started it offers two options that disable Nero Scout completely.

I think it should be sufficient to uncheck the Enable Nero Scout option so that Nero Scout will not index media files and that it will not appear in Windows Explorer anymore. Since I wanted to make sure it did not appear in Windows Explorer I unchecked both options starting with the Integrate Nero Scout in Windows Explorer one.

The results can be seen immediately.

Benchmarking a CD or DVD drive makes only sense if you can compare the results. This can be useful if you can test several CD or DVD writers before making a decision which to build into the computer or if you want to know how your drive compares to similar drives. If the benchmarking process does not throw up an error or stops midway you can almost be sure that the drive is not damaged mechanically.

The disc quality test is more interesting. It tests the quality of a created disc displaying a quality score at the end. A score above 80 is acceptable and everything above 90 is very good. I usually analyse the disc using the Scandisc function if the quality score lies beneath 80. This is also a great way to test burned media from time to time to make sure it does not contain any bad or unreadable sectors.

Nero Disc Speed comes in handy if you suspect that your DVD or CD drive is not working correctly or if you want to check the quality of the burned discs.

I find it rather interesting that Ahead, the developers of Nero, have created the so called Nero Clean Tools that clean a system after uninstalling Nero on it regularly. The tool is intended to be used after the uninstallation and takes care of any remaining Registry entries and files on the hard drive. It mainly was designed to fully remove Nero when an uninstallation did not work correctly.

The Nero Clean Tool is available for Nero versions 5 to 8 plus a version for InCD 4. The page sounds a bit misleading because the short description describes the Nero Clean Tool as a way to cleanup when an uninstallation did not succeed. If you read the instructions though you will notice that they suggest to use the Nero Clean Tool to uninstall Nero completely without mentioning the Windows uninstallation process at all.

I guess it is save to use the Nero Clean Tool exclusively to uninstall Nero from a computer.

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 ?

A full Nero 7 installation has a size of more than 500 Megabytes on your hard drive, way to much for a software that is needed for just one task: burn media.

Enter Nero Lite and Nero Micro. Both softwares are ripped versions of Nero that offer a basic functionality only reducing the size of the application tremendously. Nero Lite has a size of 30 Megabytes on your hard drive while Nero Micro tops even that and uses only 20 Megabytes.

Both can only be installed with a working Nero serial number otherwise a 30 day trial version would be installed. Nero Lite includes the following modules of Nero 7:

• Nero Burning Rom
• Nero Express
• Nero CoverDesigner
• Nero WaveEditor
• Nero Toolkit
• MauSau Audio Plugins
• Complete Nero Help

Nero Micro on the other hand is a basic version of Nero Burning Rom with basic Audio / VideoCD support. Everything else that is included normally when installing Nero has been removed by the author.

It does seem that the author has removed the downloads from his own website but they are already widely spread and can be downloaded from various locations. I included downloads of both Nero Lite and Nero Micro at the end of this article.

Nero Lite and Nero Micro users rely on the author to create new versions of both softwares when Nero updates their software. This is not done automatically but not that much of a problem if you ask me. I know users who still work with Nero 6 and have no intention to switch to a newer build.

Read More:

Nero Lite 7.9.6.0 Download
Nero Micro 7.9.6.0 Download