Top CD and DVD Burning Software

If you bought a computer with a CD or DVD burner in it, it probably came with all of the software you will ever need to burn disks. If you buy an OEM drive, however, you’ll need to install software on your PC that allows you to perform various burning tasks, like making a music CD or creating an ISO bootable disk image. We are including a list of some of the more popular programs. While some of these are not free, there are free alternatives that work just as well. Depending on your disk burning needs, those free versions might be good enough.

Commercial Disk Burning Utilities

Nero and Roxio are probably the top two commercial disk burning utilities. These will often ship with your drive, but you can also buy them online. They are pretty comparable and they both have different versions of their software depending on your needs.

Free CD and DVD Burning Software

Free burning software is good. Usually the only difference between free and commercial is that you do not get any product support or the user-interface might not be as polished as the others. Free burning software will also often have a professional version with added features. But free often works just as good. We like programs like DeepBurner and ImgBurn for burning .iso files and simple manual backups. InfraRecorder is also a good one and has an the Explorer-like feel for those comfortable with using Windows navigation.

No matter if you decide to go with free or commercial CD / DVD software, be careful when installing these type of applications and some tend to take over the way you handle media. When installing, look at what is checked and don’t just click through the menus.

If you have questions about burning utilities or want to share some of your favorites, be sure to visit our free computer forums today.