Nero 9 Free Edition

[swarfega]

Nero 9 is mostly known for being bloatware rather than being a reliable user friendly disk burning software, sadly Nero was all that several years ago. Recently Nero has introduced a new version of Nero 9 that is free and 54MB in size. This version is a stripped down version of Nero 9 ultra and consists of Disk burning and disk copying components. And that actually is a good thing compared to the whatnots that come bundled with the other versions. So basically the free version is Nero Essentials that come bundled with most CD/DVD writers these days. However I still don’t think the free version will be a success as you will need to submit an email address to get the download link(that seems ok) but they messed it all up adding the Ask toolbar which comes as an optional component during install. All Eset users will find out that the Antivirus flags it as a “potentially unwanted application”.

So if you really really like Nero and want only to burn or copy disks, this is for you otherwise there are lots of other smaller free applications out there.
Requirements:

• Windows® XP SP2 or SP3, Windows Vista®, Windows® 7, Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 with SP2
• Windows® XP 64 bit, Windows Vista® 64 bit, and Windows® 7 64 bit versions are supported via 32 bit emulation mode.
• Windows® Internet Explorer® 6.0 or higher.
• 1 GHz Intel® Pentium® III or equivalent AMD and Intel® processor (2 GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or equivalent AMD and Intel® processor for Windows Vista®), 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM for Windows Vista®).
• ~270MB hard drive space for a typical installation of all components.
• ~500MB hard drive space temporary for the installation
• CD or DVD recordable or rewritable drive for burning.
• DirectX® 9.0c revision 30 (August 2006) or higher.
• Up to 9 GB available hard drive space for DVD images and temporary DVD files.
• Graphics card with at least 32 MB video memory, minimum resolution of 800 x 600 pixels, and 16-bit color settings (24-bit or 32-bit true color is recommended).
• Installation of the latest WHQL certified device drivers is strongly recommended.
• For the Nero Online services: Nero product registration, product updates, and other features an Internet connection is required.

Optional Requirements

• *16-bit Microsoft® Windows® compatible sound device and speakers Installation of latest WHQL certified device drivers recommended.

Product details:
Version: 9.4.12.3
Release Date: July 30, 2009
File Size: 55 MB (57.187.288 bytes)
MD5 checksum: 11c83041227b73c0c490ffe16a5d65c3
Download Nero Free Edition – Nero Website | Softpedia*

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[septprince]

only 55 MB???

 

[SIW2]

LOL. I thought my Ashampoo Burning studio was big at 35mb.

 

[Mark]

Thanks Nick.

 

[Frostbite]

I use Nero but I do find it somewhat bloated on size. 397 MB for an update. :shock:

 

[jimbo45]

C

Hi all
I gave up on Nero a while ago version 6 was the last decent version which didn't come full to the brim with a load of bloat.

Their "Drive Image" virtual DVD/CD mounting tool hasn't worked since VISTA -- and this is a useful tool (ULTRA ISO works fine even on W7 X-64)

At least Nero realize that to stay in business a bit of "getting back to their roots" is in order.

I still find the easiest way to burn a CD / DVD is to make an ISO with something like ULTRA ISO and then use the built in burner.

About the only thing I find NERO even worthy of consideration for these days is that you can burn an audio CD directly from FLAC files (My music Library is all FLAC files - I'm not a fan of hideously compressed mp3 files).

I still use this method to get stuff on to a Minidisc recorder although using an XP Virtual machine - W7 doesn't support MiniDisc Simple Burner -- Mount Virtual drive with Ultra ISO, Burn Audio CD from FLAC and then use Minidisc Simple Burner to transfer CD to Minidisc. A bit old but it works (and although it might seem like Dinosaur technology the sound quality of a Minidisc runs RINGS around any IPOD - discussion for another Forum like Hydrogen Audio etc).

If Version 9 (Free version) allows you to burn FLAC files to CD Audio then I might be interested - you need the Nero mega plugin pack (free) to make V6/7 work.

Anybody tried the mega plugin pack with V9.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[mickey megabyte]

i used to find the dvd authoring part (nerovision, i think it was called) of the bloatware suite pretty powerful but also crash-prone.

the free slimware cdburnerxp (3.06 MB! download) can also make audio discs with flac files - it works great on my rtm x64. it can burn iso's too...

 

[LFB]

Wow this is awesome... finally nero in basic functions only... and free

 

[mickey megabyte]

but it's still so bloated - just where does that code go?

the app i mentioned above can do all that nero does (probably more - i havent actually checked) but at well under 10% of download/install size (nero=55 MB, cdburnerxp=3 MB).

 

[septprince]

LOL. I thought my Ashampoo Burning studio was big at 35mb.

I am used to its Nero ultra edition which is near about 397 MB...
Thats why it is so less for me...

Have you guys noticed that Nero smartstart most of the times crashes in Windows vista and windows 7..

 

[septprince]

Can it burn DVD videos???.......

 

[garbanzo]

55mb, that's astonishing. why so huge?

ImgBurn is 2.12mb installed...

 

[SIW2]

I use Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 Advanced - it's free and is a lot smaller than Nero.

 

[onlytanmoy]

thanks for the info swarfega.

 

[pparks1]

55mb, that's astonishing. why so huge?

ImgBurn is 2.12mb installed...

Thank you. ImgBurn is what I use these days. I used to use cdburnerXP...but it has a nasty habit of running my CPU's at 100% for no good reason.

Nero for free....no thanks.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I use Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 Advanced - it's free and is a lot smaller than Nero.

Website says it's a "trial". So, is it time-limited, or is it feature-limited?

 

[Mark]

The only thing you can do is Data Burning and copy disc, every tab you go to tells you you need to purchase to use it, it's pretty useless really, much better off using Burning studio or something like that. NERO=FAIL

 

[mickey megabyte]

NERO=FAIL

+1

 

[Tews]

+1

Thanks for the heads up ... I almost wasted some bandwidth ...

 

[akramh]

Normally I use Nero 7 to burn DVD Iso images, and never use the rest of the software. I have Nero 7 Ultra. today I just wanted to copy a CD with some images on it. so I created an image from the CD with the free MagicISO, then I clicked on the ISO as usuall expecting Nero to come up so I can burn it, but instead UltraISO came up ( I use that to burn ISO Images to Thumb Drives and nothing else at the moment), so I wondered what happened, I knew Nero is installed so I selected "Open With" but nero was not in the list.. I even tried to locate the exe file I think it's called nero express or something but could not find it right away and looking at the list I saw Windows Disc Image Burner which comes with windows 7 (I think), so I thought I'd give it a try maybe it will work, after all I have over 100 Blank CDs ready just in case it doesn't work lol. so I did and in 1 minute it was already done! ( the ISO was around 100MB), so I made additional copies tested and they all work. so now I wonder do I really even need Nero installed if Windows Disc Burner does the job? I didn't try it with DVD or other types of images so I am not sure yet, but I'm willing to give it a try next time and see for myself! why install bloatware Ultra Nero or even the Light free version if you can do the job with something that is part of windows? now for DVD Movie burning you can always use a specialized software like convertxtodvd or what ever is your prefered package but for normal burning tasks I see no need for nero! what do you guys think? I might remove it from my computer all toghether if I can verify I can burn all ISO images with Windows Disc Image Burner. the only drawback I see with Windows Disk Image Burner is it does not give you many options, for example if you want to burn at a lower speed or other options, but as long as it works why need to tune your burning settings?