DeepBurner Free is an advanced cd/dvd authoring utility that I’ve had in my arsenal of home/office tools for a number of years. The free version does have it’s limitations (see below), most notably the inability to perform disk to disk clones or burn video DVD’s. This is a nonissue for me since I only use DeepBurner for two things; creating audio disks (yes, I still burn mp3’s to a cd instead of plugging my mp3 player into the car radio) and burning bootable ISO images.

I recently realized I use a number of programs that basically have the same or very similar features, but it’s strange how you get caught up in a routine using certain programs for specific tasks. I actually use ImgBurn much more often to create ISO images from DVD folders (that I store in my Drobo to view via Boxee), and this software can do everything DeepBurner Free can do and more, but I still enjoy it’s lack of complexity for certain things. If I haven’t used DeepBurner in a year, I don’t worry about having to relearn anything because it’s straightforward and easy to use with extremely intuitive navigation.

That complete simplicity continues to make DeepBurner an appealing product to use and is probably why I haven’t retired from using it. There’s plenty of other competing products available, but not too many of them are this clear and user-friendly. Check out the below screenshot which is the first screen you see when the program is launched. The first thing that pops up is a project type selection box. All you have to do is make your selection and DeepBurner leads you to where you want to be next, and it’s not super complicated to figure out at any step in the process.