Some weeks ago, I wrote favorably about Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 4.02, which is now Windows 2000 capable. Several readers objected to the recommendation, citing Easy CD's penchant for making coasters. I still like the software, as it has an excellent set of features and a user-friendly interface. But I concede the point on coasters: one uses Easy CD at one's peril if one does not shut off all other background functions, especially anti- virus software and screensavers. You don't want to be multitasking while running this Adaptec product.
Accordingly, I have tested some alternatives, and look favorably
upon Ahead Software's Nero 5 from Germany.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/312/tr.cgi?al1
It's $69 plus $9 shipping if you want a disk and manuals; $49 if you download it. I deliberately subjected it to a torture test, having it burn a CD while numerous functions were running on my computer. Nero went ahead and did the job, compensating for the other program's competition for system resources. The job took more time, understandably, but the end product was a working disk. Version 5 now fully supports Windows 2000.
Nero's interface is straightforward, although slightly more complicated than Easy CD. The only limitation of any consequence is that, while Nero does have software for printing CD labels and covers, you have to manually set the printing dimensions whereas Adaptec provides templates for popular label packages. (You also get tested in metric conversion, as Nero's dimensions are in millimeters.)
Another contender is CDRWIN from Golden Hawk Technology in New
Hampshire.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/312/tr.cgi?al2
CDRWIN offers CD burner diehards a wide range of user settings for recording or creating image files, allowing nearly full control over the burning process. It's not the easiest interface in the world, though, and it does not support CDDB Internet retrieval of music CD track information.
More problematic, Golden Hawk neither supplies nor supports ASPI layer software (the software that your system uses to communicate with the CD burner), deferring to Adaptec's package. If something is amiss on your system, you are out of luck. For me, the software ran on Windows 98 but ran into problems with the ASPI layer in Windows 2000, simply would not run, and tech support declined to do anything other than refer me to third-party Web pages. [Listen up guys: the fix is, you put a copy of wnaspi32.dll in the WINCDR folder.]
