Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64
5 great free CD and DVD burning apps for Windows
by Lee Mathews Apr 28th 2009
Since most of my recording tasks involve ISO files or burning entire folders as a backup, ImgBurn has become my app of choice. It's small and easy to use, and I've yet to produce a coaster with it. It's also a great tool for creating ISO files - either from a disc or files and folders on your PC.
ImgBurn also gets bonus points for the random comments that appear in status bar.
See the rest after the jump!
If you prefer a more Nero-style experience but can do without all the bloat, CDBurner Xp is a great option. Apart from burning pretty much any kind of project, you can also use CDB to create covers and burn Lightscribe artwork to your discs. It also now supports Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. It's very easy to use even for non-technical types (read: I install this on my friends' and parents' systems).
InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder has been part of the Portable Apps suite for a long time, and with good reason. It's an excellent burning application that can handle just about any type of project. It is, of course, totally portable so it's a perfect tool to cart around on your flash drive.
Running 64-bit Windows? There are also native x64 versions of both the installer and portable versions of Infrarecorder.
You've gotta love the "Smoking Aero" demo video - check it out on their screenshots page.
ExpressBurn packs a lot of functionality into a sub-400Kb download. In addition to creating data and audio discs and ISO files, it can also copy discs and burn video DVD and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD data discs. Volume normalization is supported on audio CDs.
If you just want a tool to burn ISO files, this is as simple as it gets. Burn CDCC is portable and supports CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray image files. It's totally portable and only takes up 150Kb of disk space. Browse for your ISO, choose the burner you want to use, and press start. That's all there is to it.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
der_tuxman said 1:33PM on 4-28-2009
IMHO CD/DVD Burning is really missing here. Even more lightweight.
http://ghosthunter.gh.funpic.de/tools.htm
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Alex M said 3:22PM on 4-28-2009
I did not know about the comments in ImgBurn's status bar! That's it, I'm switching to it.
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Rodrigo P. Ghedin said 4:12PM on 4-28-2009
Nice tips, but you forgot a very good one: BurnAware. Despite it has paid versions, the free one is pretty good, and overcomes all my needs.
[]'s!
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Asgaro said 8:29AM on 4-29-2009
True, also wanted to add BurnAware Free to this list!
It's a very neat app and it's all about simplicity.
It also gets updates quite frequently.
kidosteph said 5:23PM on 4-28-2009
This is great!
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rothgar said 5:26PM on 4-28-2009
I am so glad I have gotten out of the habit of burning CD's. I have some extra USB drives that I keep around for when I need files on a different machine. I have my main USB drive with my "normal" apps and documents. Then I have 1 disk for vista/7/PE installs, 1 for Linux installs, and 1 for misc files. Between these 4 USB sticks I figure I will never need to burn another CD/DVD again. And now I am looking to get rid of my CD/DVD drives in all my computers. My tablet already doesn't have a drive, and next year my laptop won't either.
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Fred Thompson said 9:24PM on 4-28-2009
Uh...yeah...and 64K is enough memory for anyone...
DVD storage costs half that of drives and is far more shock resistant. Start collecting audio or video and you'll see why write-once is generally a far more efficient storage method.
Hard to stuff a hard drive into a DVD player, too. A very small percentage support USB drives...a very small percentage.
Ever travel? Better to take backup disc media so if it's lost or damaged, you still have the original. Most rental cars and a lot of hotel room have CD or DVD players. USB ports? Yeah...right.
Much cheaper to burn a disc and mail it to Grandma for her to put in a DVD player than to ship her your hard drive, too.
rothgar said 10:54PM on 4-28-2009
whoa, what usb drive got stuck in your butt and died?
Jaffarn said 4:28AM on 4-29-2009
and on the other hand ....
USB sticks are becoming increasingly popular as there capacity increases and flash memory read/write cycles is progressing at a great pace...
Also your comment "64K is enough memory for anyone" is akin to "Blu-ray's have heaps of space".
Last nail in the coffin... USB 3.0 ...ten times increase in transfer times... 5.0Gbits/sec
Flash memory is the way of the future.
:)
Mike said 9:24PM on 4-28-2009
It isn't strictly a file burner, and is only compatible with ISO, but I've found DVD Decrypter to be a more than decent burner. It's lightweight and works with the only image format I really use on my Windows based systems, ISO. As for the Macintosh, why spend money on an ISO burner when Disk Utility does it free?
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DJDerrickE said 10:55PM on 4-29-2009
Imgburn is made by the same person who made DVD Decrypter.
Mike said 7:20AM on 4-30-2009
Really? That's awesome! More reason to try it :)
idodialog said 9:37PM on 4-28-2009
ImgBurn - is it a coincidence that I have NEVER had a bad burn (coaster) in several years? I've tried a lot of the "competition" with mixed results but ImgBurn is a beautifully built tool with simplicity up front and complexity hidden (but available) behind.
I'm not a CD/DVD/Blueray techie, but I just have the sense that this software really knows what it's doing.
A slightly bigger UI and a bit of UI polish might make this the best bit of software (free or otherwise) available.
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TheHub said 10:37AM on 4-29-2009
I've used both CDBurner Xp and Burnaware Free and found the latter a much simpler piece of software to use. It is also a lot faster than CDBurner Xp, when loading files to burn.
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Lynn LU said 11:18PM on 5-02-2009
For Mac users:
Mac DVD Burner is also a cool burning software for Mac users
http://www.dvdburnermacosx.com/mac-dvd-creator.html?page=129
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