As USB sticks and other flash memory drives increase in storage capacity, so does their popularity as software repositories. Many applications have developed special versions for these devices, usually known as "portable". One of them is CCleaner Portable.

In a few words, CCleaner Portable is the pocket version of CCleaner, an excellent cleaning tool with which you can erase unused files, thus gaining back valuable free disk space and making Windows run faster and smoother. The great advantage about CCleaner Portable is that it allows you to do just the same without leaving any evidence of use on the computer. In fact, you don't even need to install it. Simply run it from your USB memory stick and you'll have immediate access to all of its features. CCleaner Portable does create some necessary keys in Windows Registry, but these are deleted when the program is closed, so there'll be no trace of it left on the system.

Regarding its functions, CCleaner Portable does a very satisfactory job. The program helps you to get rid of many different files such as Internet cookies, temporary files, log files or all those leftovers found after months of installing and uninstalling applications. The configuration menu features interesting options like the possibility to keep certain cookies which may be useful for you or the ability to add custom file types to the delete filter. Apart from freeing up disk space, CCleaner Portable also lets you uninstall applications, find broken registry keys and list all the programs set to run when Windows launches.

On the down side, CCleaner Portable does not allow you to undo changes, so you must be very sure about what you want to erase before clicking on "Yes". Also, the program can take a few minutes before finishing the analysis that must be done prior to deletion. However, this is probably due to the fact that CCleaner Portable runs from a USB device and that we checked all the available options when cleaning our system – the test found 558 MB of removable material, which obviously took a while to be deleted.

All in all, CCleaner Portable is every bit as good as its "big brother" and comes in really handy when you want to use it on any PC without installing anything or leaving any traces behind you.

Download CCleaner Portable 2.12.660 in Softonic

Image burning is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to save large amounts of data to DVD or CD.

Images are increasingly popular on torrent sites and other download portals because they allow users to download high volumes of data in a relatively small file. What's more, it's instantly ready for DVD or disk burning. ImgBurn is an ultra-lightweight CD/DVD/HD/DVD and Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit. It has several 'Modes', with each one performing a different task.

These include "Read" which reads a disc to an image file; "Build" which creates an image file from files on your computer or network; "Write" which writes an image file to a disc and "Verify" which checks whether a disk is 100% readable. With this last option, you can also ensure that the data is correct by asking ImgBurn to compare your disk against an image file. Finally, you have "Discovery" which puts your drive to the test to find just what kind of speeds and disk types it can support.

If you are experiencing any burning problems, it may be that your drive is not fast enough to handle the settings you have configured or that you are using the wrong kind of disks.

A very lightweight an powerful image burner that requires little experience but will ensure all your images are burned in a flash.

Download ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 in Softonic

The Cheetah DVD Burner provides an easy-to-use interface for burning DVDs. The application boasts a number of handy features to make the process of burning CDs even quicker and easier. You can carry out the following projects:

• Burn a Video DVD from an ISO, Bin/Cue, or Video_TS folder
• Backup your data on 8.5 GB DVD+R discs
• Backup your data on DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM
• Burn a standard CD or CD-RW
• Creates Red Book compatible audio CDs from mp3, mp2, avi, ogg, wma, and wav files
• Extract audio from an Audio CD
• Copy a Data CD
• Copy an audio disc
• Burn Bin/Cue image files
• Builds ISO Images from selected files for burning at a later date
• Convert audio files from mp3, mp2, avi, ogg, wma, and wav files
• Erase CD/DVD discs

It has the following features:

Features:

• The Cheetah DVD Burner passes the Video DVD Verifier tests and Mastering Applications like the most known Philips Video DVD Verifier
• Create Bootable CD/DVD from .img files
• Supports use of high write speeds - Designed for high data rates
• Support for hardware buffer underrun protection systems, like BURNproof, JustLink, Power-Burn, SafeBurn, SeamlessLink etc
• Burn Multi-Session Data CD/DVD with all types of media
• No further writing is possible after the disc is burned
• Performs a binary compare with the source files
• Burn Joliet directories with 64 char file names

Download Cheetah DVD Burner 2.33 in Softonic

With the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats becoming increasingly dominant, it's important to have a burner that can handle them all.

The problem with most new burners is that they come at a cost and Astroburn is no exception. The full version will cost you a few dollars but this demo allows you to perform basic burning of small files. Unlike big name programs such as Nero, Astroburn is one of those programs that's easy to use and allows you to carry out a wide array of functions.

You can burn discs, create and record ISO, copy discs, erase rewritable disks and create music CDs. The interface is incredibly stripped down featuring a drag and drop burning process that's easy to use. The fact that the interface is so basic should not give the impression that it's not particularly powerful though.

However, it doesn't always burn as it should do. Normally CD burners automatically optimise burning for the speed of your drive but it seems that Astroburn requires you to configure this yourself. If you don't define the right speed , the buffer is too slow and you'll suffer from the dreaded "buffer underrun" problem. The support page is useless because it simply gives you a phone number for technical assistance rather than an FAQ.

Nevertheless, if you need a simple solution to burning HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and don't mind paying a bit for the pleasure, Astroburn is a worthy option.

Download Astroburn 1.0.8.0 in Softonic

Romeo Burner is one of the most comprehensive, powerful and yet simple to use CD/DVD burners you could hope to find.

Designed with the latest generation Bluray and HD-DVD disks in mind, it's a one-program-fits-all solution for your burning needs. Once installed, you will find all your starting points within the "Romeo Projects" folder which has appeared on your Desktop. The program provides several ways options to burn disk, the most complicated of which take no more than 5 or 6 clicks. The file menu works via drag and drop so you just drag in everything that you want to burn and configure whether you're starting a "multissesion" burning session or just "Track at once". Once you're done, simply click "Burn" and you're away with the burner selecting the right speed according to your burners capabilities. There are a ton of other burning possibilities too including an Audio Disc Grabber with which you can rip audio discs to your hard drive in MP3 or WMA format. This comes with a built-in MP3 tag editor and CDDB database to detect which songs you are burning. In addition, there are options for duplicating disks, erasing disks and even controlling it from the command prompt.

A very elegant and powerful burner, it's a solid solution especially for those wanting to burn Bluray and HD disks with minimum fuss.

Download Romeo Burner Lite 2.3.2 in Softonic

When all you want to do is just burn a CD or DVD, huge suites like Nero are certainly not the most suitable solution. Instead, you should look for a simple recording application such as InfraRecorder.

This easy tool features everything you need to record both CD and DVD. It supports data and audio burning, dual-layer DVD and also disc images. It works with rewritable discs and can burn copies on the fly as well. Results are very satisfying, with just one small complaint: I'd like to have a sound normalizer for song compilations.

But the best thing about InfraRecorder is undoubtedly its simplicity, in every sense. It launches in a few seconds, enables you to drag and drop files, features very intuitive menus and even includes a reduced version (InfraExpress) for last-minute recordings. However, if you want to record MP3 files into audio CDs you'll need to download the decoder by yourself and copy it to the Program files – InfraRecorder – Codecs folder.

InfraRecorder is a simple and efficient tool for quick CD and DVD recording.

Download Infra Recorder 0.45 in Softonic

If you're tired of bloated burning suites, maybe BurnAware is what you're looking for. This simple burning application includes all the tools you need to record your own CD, DVD and even Blu-Ray discs.

The program starts up with a wizard-style interface that lets you select the appropriate recording task. You can choose between data and music discs, as well as DVD videos and ISO files. In all cases you may choose files and folders from the program itself or simply drag and drop files onto its interface. Also, notice the drop-down menu on the bottom bar, from which you can select the target size: CD, DVD, double-layered DVD and Blu-Ray.

BurnAware includes all the classical settings in a burning tool: support for multisession, a rewritable disc erasing tool and writing simulation among others, but lacks a more advanced configuration menu that enabled, for example, tweaking recorder settings to take full advantage of each disc's space. Another good idea would be to have some sort of very basic embedded tool to create a simple cover for your newly recorded discs. I guess this is just a matter of time - and future versions.

BurnAware is a basic, yet effective burning tool for data, video and music discs that supports Blu-Ray.

Download BurnAware 1.3 beta in Softonic

Software applications are being constantly improved with every new version. Bugs are fixed, designs are polished, new functionalities are added. But sometimes they become too bloated, often losing sight of what they were created for in the first place. So for instance, whenever I need to record a CD or DVD, I no longer turn to Nero but use DeepBurner instead.

This neat program allows you to record CD or DVD in a very simple way: every time you launch it you see a project selection window where you can choose what to do (create a data disk, create an audio CD or burn an ISO image) and you're then guided through a few easy steps in a wizard-like process.

Despite its basic appearance DeepBurner features a large variety of tools and options for your recording needs: support for multisession disks, the ability to erase rewritable media and even a built-in editor to create and print your own custom CD covers and labels. There's also the option to create ISO image files, although you need to follow a small workaround to get to it: run the program and choose "Create data CD/DVD" in the project selection window. Select the files and folders you want to include in your ISO and when you're done click on the "Burn Disk" button. In the next dialog you'll be able to choose "Save ISO" instead of actually burning the data onto a CD.

On the down side, DeepBurner could be criticised for being too simple, especially when compared to big recording suites such as Nero or Roxio. It's perfect if you just need to record a CD from time to time, but if you're looking for something more then you'll miss features like volume normalizing or being able to create copies, to name just a few. In any case, DeepBurner is a perfectly valid option for those who prefer avoiding complicated programs and prefer the simplicity of an app focused on one single ability: recording CD's and DVD's.

Download DeepBurner Free 1.9 in Softonic

WinHex is a universal hexadecimal editor, particularly helpful in the realm of computer forensics, data recovery, low-level data processing, and IT security. An advanced tool for everyday and emergency use: you can inspect and edit all kinds of files, recover deleted files or lost data from hard drives with corrupt file systems or from digital camera cards.

Features include:

• Disk editor for hard disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM & DVD, ZIP, Smart Media, etc
• Native support for FAT, NTFS, Ext2/3, ReiserFS, CDFS, UDF
• Built-in interpretation of RAID systems and dynamic disks
• RAM editor, providing access to physical RAM and other processes' virtual memory
• Data interpreter, knowing 20 data types
• Editing data structures using templates (e.g. to repair partition table/boot sector)
• Concatenating and splitting files, unifying and dividing odd and even bytes/words
• Analyzing and comparing files
• Particularly flexible search and replace functions
• Disk cloning (under DOS with X-Ways Replica)
• Drive images & backups (optionally compressed or split into 650 MB archives)
• Programming interface (API) and scripting
• 128-bit encryption, checksums, CRC32, hashes (MD5, SHA-1, ...)
• Erase (wipe) confidential files securely, hard drive cleansing to protect your privacy
• Import all clipboard formats, incl. ASCII hex values
• Convert between binary, hex ASCII, Intel Hex, and Motorola S
• Character sets: ANSI ASCII, IBM ASCII, EBCDIC, (Unicode)
• Instant window switching. Printing. Random-number generator.
• Supports files >4 GB

Download WinHex 14.7 in Softonic

Oront Burning Kit is a software product that helps you record, erase and copy CDs and DVDs. It has gathered the best features of CD and DVD burning software and provides great opportunities to make your work with the discs easier.

Oront Burning Kit works under Windows and needs a minimum amount of resources and disc space to run. Using this software you can create and record CD and DVD with data, music and video, create and record ISO, format and copy discs, extract files from multisession discs and use many other features.

Features of the kit:

• Multilingual support
• DVD Double Layer support
• Supports any CD or DVD recorder
• Can be launched without installation
• On-the-fly burning
• Supports CD-Text
• Data discs can be verified after record
• Save and load project files
• Save and load interface and record settings
• Supports high burning speeds
• Supports UDF, multisession and boot options

Download Oront Burning Kit 2.1.6 in Softonic

In the great tradition of MagicVideoSoftware, this CD/DVD burning application makes it really easy to create & copy your own data, video, audio and multisession CDs, DVDs discs. Many current CD/DVD burning programs are universal “everything including the kitchen sink” applications that are overloaded with countless confusing functions. Magic Burning Studio makes life easier by concentrating on what you really want to do!

Features:

• Create MP3 CDs/DVDs discs
• Burn Movies as Video DVD, Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (S-VCD)
• Create and burn CD/DVD Images
• Erase CD-RWs / DVD+RWs / DVD-RWs
• Supports file names with up to 127 characters for DVDs and 64 characters for CDs
• Burn speed and other options can all be set automatically
• Burns WAV, MP3, WMA and Ogg Vorbis files directly to Audio CDs without any plugins
• Create copies from audio, video or data discs easily
• Interactive troubleshooting assistant that helps to solve hardware and media problems
• Integrated support for over 1,700 CD, DVD burners

Download Magic Burning Studio 10.3.5 in Softonic

DropToCD (DataCD/DVD) is a very easy to use tool to create and burn data CDs and DVDs based on drag&drop technology. Just drag and drop files and folders to a little window and hit 'Burn disc' from popup menu to burn a CD or DVD. Simply as 1,2,3... Also you can burn ISO images, erase rewritable CDs or DVDs and more.

Features of the program:

• Supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM
• Tested with SCSI, IDE/EIDE, USB CD/DVD recorders
• Create multisession CD / DVD
• Create bootable CD/DVD or ISO images
• Supports ISO9660 / Joliet files systems, burning simulation, OPC, BURNProof etc.

Download DropToCD (DataCD/DVD) 3.5 in Softonic

Complex Evolution makes disks burning absolutely easy, fast and as comfortable as possible. You can burn data, audio, video files in just a couple of clicks. Simply select the desired files, add them to the required project and click on the "Burn" button. That's all!

The application supports different file systems on discs: ISO 9660 (Level 1, Level 2), ISO 9660 with Joliet extension (Unicode characters in file and folder names) and UDF (Universal Disc Format).

This is that this program has to offer:

• Power calibration
• Multi-session discs
• Writing subchannel data
• Creation of bootable discs
• Support for test mode (simulation of burning)
• Two erasing modes for rewritable discs (fast and full)
• Supported interfaces for CD/DVD devices: IDE, SCSI and USB
• Flexible speed selection (from the lowest to the fastest possible)

Download Complex Evolution 3.2.7.261 in Softonic

With Cute CD DVD Burner, you can create and burn audio and data CDs and DVDs with all files of any format (Include MP3,MPEG and so on), Making bootable DVDs and CDs, building and burning ISO image file in high speed. Creating multisession discs, importing previous sessions, testwrite,backup,Long filename support, built-in ASPI layer, erasing rewritable discs, preventing bad burns and CD creation errors (BURN-Proof, Just Link, and OPC technologies) are all included in the Cute CD DVD Burner. It's a powerful yet small CD DVD burner that uses few resources. CD-R(W),DVD+R(W), DVD-R(W) and DVD-RAM are supported.

Cute CD DVD Burner is also an amazing CD DVD cloner. If you have a DVD-Rom and a DVD RW drive, you can copy a new disc from the source disc(So do CD-Rom and CD RW). In another hand, cloning CD DVD is still available even if you have ONLY ONE DVD RW drive (CD RW drive). The program has One Drive Copy function that helps people who do not have two disc drives to copy discs.

Backup Schedule is a very userful function that backups files and folders your selected beforehand.It will carry out the backup task periodically (Day(s),Week(s),Month(s), any one you like). Easy and friendly interface as well as changeable skins(12 skins available) makes it easy-to-use and personal.

Download Cute CD DVD Burner 3.3 in Softonic

Backup Platinum is an easy-to-use yet powerful backup program to make a reserve copy of your critical data virtually to any type of storage media: hard or USB drives, CD-R/W or DVD±R/RW media, FTP server or Local Area Network.

128-bit encryption with Blowfish and multichoice ZIP compression on the fly are available to keep your backups small and secure. Built-in CD/DVD engine allows you to erase a rewritable disk before burning and automatically split large backups to several parts using disk spanning.

Backup Platinum is designed for MS Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/ XP/2003. The program comes with a flexible scheduler to provide automatic backups. It can also run in service mode under NT/2000/XP/2003 to execute scheduled tasks even when nobody is logged in.

Download Backup Platinum 3.0 in Softonic

This nifty application allows you to easily create and burn your own custom high-quality data DVD & CD, multisession disc and bootable DVD/CD. Some of the best features include the ability to create and burn ISO image files, erase rewritable discs, prevent bad burns and CD creation errors, backup your Windows system and files, testwrite function and more.

Round-up of the top features:

• Supports virtually all SCSI, IDE, EIDE, USB and Firewire CD/DVD Writers

• Supports all CD-R/CD-RW/DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM Discs

• Prevents bad burns and CD creation errors

• No more bad burns, save your money, time and discs

• On the fly recording; no need to build ISO file first. No disk space is required for temporary files

Download Easy DVD/CD Burner 3.0.82 in Softonic

BurnQuick is one of the simplest CD burning programs ever designed. Just right-click on a file or a folder and select a BurnQuick command from the popup menu. Set a few options on the BurnQuick interface and click on Start. BurnQuick will burn all of the selected files onto your CD or DVD burner, quickly and simply.

Once installed, BurnQuick becomes part of Windows and it can be used to burn a file or a complete directory to disc directly from the Windows Explorer. BurnQuick's simplified interface sets the new standard for ease of use in CD burning software.

Features:

• Copies audio CDs
• Single-drive copying
• Creates Data, Audio, Mixed-Mode, and CD-Extra discs
• Decodes MP3s on-the-fly
• Supports "multi-session" CDs
• Burn immediately or Queue for burning later
• Editable Queue
• Improved Queue Access
• Long filename renaming
• Allows disk naming
• Selectable writing speed
• Small memory "foot-print"
• Built-in erase function for re-writable discs
• Supports "burn-proof" drives

Download BurnQuick 4.8.4.1 in Softonic

Smart DVD/CD Burner is an easy-to-use and effective DVD/CD burning software for Beginners and Professionals. With this burning program you can create high-quality CD (audio/data) and DVD discs, containing your music and files.

Full Drag and Drop support, Importing multi-session DVD/CDs, Burning Music CD directly from MP3/OGG/WMA/WAV files, On-the-fly recording, Erasing re-writable discs, Supporting majority of modern IDE/USB/SCSI/FireWire DVD/CD writers drive, Supporting buffer protection systems (BURN-Proof) and more are all included in the latest version of Smart DVD/CD Burner.

Download Smart DVD/CD Burner 3.0.58 in Softonic