Free Nero CD and DVD Burning Alternatives for Windows

Although oftentimes it might suffice to use the in built features provided by Windows XP or Windows Vista, sometimes they just don't cut it. Plus, if you're using Windows XP then you wont be able to burn DVDs even if you have a DVD burner without having to invest in good burning software. But why pay for something when you've got lots of other free and open source options.

Some of the features most of the applications listed below have are:

• Burn CDs and DVDs
• Copy CDs and DVDs
• Make Audio CD files
• Burn ISO files
• Some have the capability of burning to new media formats such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs.
  

InfraRecorder - A lightweight application that does pretty much everything you'll ever need. It has a really easy to use interface and great Windows Explorer Integration. This is the software I use currently on Windows XP and has worked fine so far. I haven't tried this out on Windows Vista though but it should work perfectly on Vista as well.
CDBurnerXP - A very lightweight CD and DVD burning application that can do pretty much every thing paid software can. However, it does have some evident bugs when you try and burn DVDs and CDs with it and in my testing I found it to be quite prone to crashing. This is strictly a donation-ware application.
BurnAware Free Edition - Considered one of the best freeware burning applications around, it has an intuitive interface that is going to let you burn files faster. It's light on resources and burns data directly to the CD instead of caching it on your hard drive first. Plus it supports almost every out there.
DeepBurner Free - A great little application that does other things like print CD labels and it even fits in your USB drive so you can use it as a portable drive.
StarBurn Free - StarBurn allows you to burn to other different types of media such as Blu-Ray Discs and HD-DVDs provided you have the hardware to do so. The free version doesn't have any networking capabilities, however the paid full version, which retails at about 500 bucks does.
ImageBurn - This is also a nifty little application that can burn to DVDs, CDs, Blu-Ray Discs and even HD-DVDs (although HD-DVD is pretty much dead now).
Ultimate DVD/CD Burner - This application can create photo albums, back-up CDs and also burn ISO files. The interface is a bit old-school though but as long as it serves the purpose, does the interface really matter?

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