Tiny Burner

Softland's Tiny Burner not only burns CD and DVD optical discs but also Blu-ray discs: both single- and double-layer media. It's compatible with most optical disc drives, including the latest BD burners. Tiny Burner also creates ISO images of existing discs, meaning you can use it to create backup copies of your movies and games. Tiny Burner also turns your disc burner into the functional equivalent of an external backup drive, except the only cost is the price of a blank disc: Unlike an external hard drive, Tiny Burner is free. This easy-to-use disc-burning tool works in both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems equipped with an optical disk burner.

As soon as we opened Tiny Burner, we saw something we liked. Not the plain but efficient sidebar-and-window layout of the compact user interface, though that's nicely rendered, too. No, it was the simple, draggable Drop Target, which displayed both the Added Files total and the Total Size in megabytes. It's large enough to be easy to find and hit but small and unobtrusive enough to leave open on the desktop; we could change the color and transparency in the program's Options, too, as well as change our Log, Burn, Language, and other settings. One useful button on the Options sheet saved our project as an INI file; the Tools menu entries let us create and burn ISO images, too. Tiny Burner's features, options, and basic operation differ little from other mainstream optical disc utilities, so many users will be able to just start using it. But the Help menu includes a substantial Help file as well as Web-based resources for any user who wants more information.

The software opened the first time with a New Project ready to create and save. A folder of saved clips we've used to burn discs before served as our source material, though we also dragged files into the Drop Target. When our project was ready, Tiny Burner sent it to our optical drive to be burned to disc. While the final product depends on your hardware, Tiny Burner certainly held its end up.