Having recently rebuilt my computer due to the old one slowly, painfully dying, I’ve come to realize that I had a LOT of bloat software on my machine previously. Things like Nero with its entire “suite” of applications I have absolutely no use for yet are still clogging up my hard drive and registry.
So now, with Windows 7, I decided that I was gonna take a stand and use lightweight programs wherever I could to reduce the system overhead and just all-around cut out the crap I don’t need at all.
So I found this awesome free CD/DVD burning software called Burn Aware that does pretty much everything I need a burning suite to do:
- Burns audio/data/MP3 CDs and DVD-Video
- Burns ISO files (both CD and DVD)
- Supports Blu-ray for if (when) I get a BD burner
Oh, and it’s free. UPDATE: Use at your own risk in Windows 7. I’m running Home Premium RTM and so far this software has eaten 4 DVD-DL discs tonight and I’m on the verge of punching through my monitor I’m so pissed. It worked fine in Vista Ultimate so why it’s not working in Windows 7 I haven’t the foggiest. I could try running it in Vista compatibility mode but I’m afraid to waste another disc. UPDATE 2: Windows 7 users beware. Not even running in Windows XP Service Pack 2 compatibility mode resulted in a working disc.
And speaking of free, I came across an application called Super (scroll way down to the bottom of the page. They make it very confusing and difficult to find) that converts video files into universal formats that play on any system (including Sony PlayStation Portables). I haven’t used it yet, but it was recommended quite highly to me by a number of people.
Tags: CD burning, DVD burning, Free, Helpful, Utilities
