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Introduction

Ever since the company inception in 1995, founded by Richard Lesser, Ahead Software AG has been at the forefront of CD burning applications for the Windows platform. With the Nero Burning ROM 5 series becoming almost ubiquitous as the preferred method of burning a CD in a Windows environment. The later iterations of version 5 also gained the ability to write DVDs. Now Ahead has built on 5’s strengths and developed what it thinks is the current pinnacle of CD and DVD authoring. Nero 6.0 drops the slightly tacky Burning ROM moniker, adds some new features over the outgoing 5.5 version and significantly improves the old interface, making 6.0 easier to use.

With Nero now an entire disc authoring experience, bundled in a retail box with separate applications to create movie DVDs, edit audio files and backup your data, amongst others, giving you everything you need to get the very most out of your CD or DVD writer.

Installation

Installation is simple, whether using a retail 6.0 CD purchased from Ahead or a software retailer, or using the downloaded demo version from Ahead’s website and registering it with a serial number purchased from the web store.

Refreshingly, none of the Nero 6.0 components offer a custom installation option. You either install that particular component or you don’t, granularity in your choices stops there and for the better we think.

With installation being so easy, getting Nero 6.0 onto your system takes no more than a couple of minutes with a single reboot at the end.

Creating Discs

With Nero 6.0, Ahead’s focus on ease of use appears to be paramount. With the outgoing 5.5 version, creating a project with which to burn a disc wasn’t particularly difficult, but 6.0 has StartSmart, a simple and very easy to use front end application with which to create a project from beginning to end.

In default configuration, StartSmart offers you key categories to choose from, related to the types of project you are most likely to create, from simple audio CDs to DVD movie discs that will play in any DVD player. With a DVD writer, StartSmart offers a simple toggle between DVD and CD based projects, ensuring that project specific settings relying on either DVD or CD media are set correctly.

StartSmart makes it very easy to create any of the type of disc supported by Nero, using Nero Express to create discs in its default configuration. Nero Express is a wizard-like application that offers a simpler interface than the main Nero 6.0 interface which most people will be familiar with, having used 5.5 in the past. Hiding many of the options that generally never need to be adjusted when creating a disc, Nero Express gives you a simple drag and drop interface for adding files, music or movies to a project. It’s generally less than 5 clicks and a drag and drop session before your writer bursts into life and spits out the disc a short while later.

You can choose Nero 6.0 as the application that StartSmart will launch when you’ve chosen your initial project options, but unless you are regularly creating out of the ordinary discs, Nero Express will be fine for the vast majority of projects you’ll create. If such projects are your staple burning diet, for example creating bootable DVDs for installing operating systems, Nero 6.0 will still do the job. However using StartSmart and Nero Express as your initial project interface will become redundant.

StartSmart also records information on your created projects and offers up your popular project choices in a favourites list, much like you have in a web browser with a favourite list of sites.

With StartSmart and Nero Express, Ahead has obviously decided to go after the target market that Roxio serves with Easy CD/DVD Creator 6.0 Platinum. Ease of use and ability to create the types of disc that the majority of home users will be interested in, in a minimum of mouse clicks, is something that both application suites do very well.

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