Free CD/DVD burning software

I mowed the lawn yesterday and learned something quite unrelated to lawn mowing.

Whenever I climb aboard the John Deere LA125, I do so with iPod and earplug speakers. Sometimes I listen to music, other times it's podcasts. Yesterday it was Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott.

The software tip was CDburnerXP, a free CD/DVD burner program from Sweden that is a great replacement for the bloated, trying-to-be-everything-to-everyone software packages that Roxio and Nero have become. And it's FREE!

You can find it at http://cdburnerxp.se/

I downloaded it to my desktop computer and also to Maria's and it works beautifully. Here's what it does.

Create Data-CDs/DVDs

• burn any Data on CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM/BD/HD-DVD, including double layer mediums
• burn mp3-CDs to store many audio files on one single disc
• create bootable discs
• verify written Data automatically after burning process
• use either the internal browser to add your files or the intuitive Drop-Box to drag and drop files directly from any Windows Explorer window
• save your compilations for creation of backups
• burn on-the-fly and with buffer-underrun protections
• import previous (ISO 9660) sessions and edit existing file structure on CD/DVD
• quick- and full-erase disc
• copy data discs (possible copy-protection is not bypassed)
• retrieve recorder and disc information

Create Audio-CDs

• create Audio-CDs from mp3, wav, ogg, flac and wma files
• add single or multiple tracks from existing audio-CDs directly to your new compilation without ripping tracks before (add cda-files)
• play audio-files with integrated audio player
• gapless audio-CDs supported (disc-at-once-mode)
• import M3U or WPL playlists
• support for ReplayGain
• import CUE sheets
• create mixed-mode discs

ISO features

• burn ISO files to CD
• create your own ISO files
• convert bin- and nrg-files to ISO
• save CDs/DVDs as ISO file to disc

Other features

• simple cover printing feature for data- and audio-discs
• LightScribe integration
• Command line version
• supports most IDE, USB, Firewire and SCSI drives
• integrated option to enable access to drive for restricted users
• multi-language interface
• online update