I thought most of those burning software programs have "limited functionality" demos/trials that you can still use for awhile.. or put up with limited features until you pay. i have a ton of nero/roxio cds lying around from cd-rw purchases from the past that i continue to use today. i know this is "olderversion.com" and all, but windows XP has built in burning, intergrated into explorer just drag and drop from menus/open windows and "burn to cd" but you still need a third party program to create a cd from image "iso"