Burning CDs with ImgBurn (Windows)

In a previous post I discussed using Windows Explorer to burn CDs, instead of those complicated and often massive burning "suites."

Programs like Nero install tons of services and add-ons - everything from video conversion utilities to CD drive diagnostics and so forth. Anybody know what "Nero Scout" is and why it suddenly shows up at the "My Computer" level after installation?

Windows disc burning is functional but without some options that come in handy, such as the ability to close a disc burning session (important if you're sending out your disk to be duplicated), a step that verifies your discs, and the ability to burn from or create disk images.

In the meantime, I found a program called ImgBurn which seems to bridge the gap. It's a no-frills and FREE program for burning CDs. It has a fair number of options, but I went through all the defaults and luckily for novice users, it makes smart choices for you.

ImgBurn's opening screen has a "wizard" type of menu where you can quickly get started with your burn job:



The subsequent screens and menus are nothing fancy to look at, but they've got everything you need for handling a variety of burn jobs. Here's the basic data disc burning inteface:



You can learn more about ImgBurn or download a copy for yourself at http://www.imgburn.com.