The NTI CD Maker Gold software which came with the Sony DVDROM/CD-RW drive on my two year old Windows 2000 Pro "white box" ceased to function following a visit to MS Update when the system was only a few weeks old.   I was able to repair it by reinstalling the software but the problem recurred on several occasions.   On each occasion, following a visit to MS Update, I got an error message when I attempted to burn a CD and I was able to restore funtionality to the software by simply reinstalling it.   Finally there came an occasion, a few weeks ago, when reinstalling NTI’s CD Maker Gold didn’t fix it.   My first thought was to purchase a copy of Nero, about which I’ve heard many good things, so I visited their website and found that they’ve gone the way of Baskin-Robbins, offering so many "flavors" that I was unable to determine which would suit my simple needs while some versions came with enough sticker shock to put me off entirely.

So there I was, willing to part with a few of my hard-earned bucks for CD burning software and unable to find an application I was willing to purchase.   There’s a certain irony in the fact that I’ve used freeware for years because I couldn’t afford to buy anything when I’ve lately been turning to freeware and/or Open Source applications because I can’t find the features I want anywhere else.   Be that as it may, my friend google and I were able to find several freeware CD burning applications beginning with a host of applications from Dirk Paehl.   I tried several of Dirk’s applications and was pleased with them but I’m an average Windows user who’s used to having one application handle everything involving the burning of CDs.   With Dirk’s applications you have to know which software does what job and, well, didn’t I just say I’m an average Windows user?   Um, well, anyway, I next tried CDBurnerXP Pro which mostly works very nicely but a couple of times it claimed to have burned CDs when it hadn’t actually done so which created uncertainty, undermined my confidence in the software, and made me reluctant to burn CDs.   That’s where it stood until I found the Ultimate CD/DVD Burner.   Despite the developers claim that the Ultimate CD/DVD Burner is "intuitive and easy to use" I don’t necessarily feel that this software represents the "perfect" CD burning application, but that’s ok with me; I’ve given up on finding a perfect application.   The Ultimate CD/DVD Burner has no help files and doesn’t seem particularly intuitive (to me) but it has worked every time.   By the way, it doesn’t have to be installed either; it’s a "stand alone" executable, once unzipped so you’ll have to decide where to unzip it and create your own shortcut to get to it once it’s unzipped.   If you really need a CD burning application but that sounds too geeky for you, try CDBurnerXP Pro; it might perform better on your system than it did on mine and it’s still under development so even if you do get similar results, it could be fixed by the next update.

Don Crowder