AHEAD NERO 6 ULTRA EDITION

From the very first version of Ahead's Nero Burning ROM software it was clear that this was a company that wanted to make life as easy as possible for its customers. There were a few ethical questions about the way that Nero would help you to copy audio CDs and software CDs, but the understanding was that you were only making copies to back up your precious original CDs. Of course you were.

Since then, Ahead has had to work hard to bring out worthwhile updates to keep its customers coming back for more. Adding DVD writing was a natural progression, but once that was done, to all intents and purposes Nero 5 had every feature that you could want from a CD/DVD burning software package.

At least that's what we thought. So it comes as a real surprise to find that Nero 6 (£55 inc. VAT) is a significant update that adds plenty of new features that should be of interest to most users. In your System Tray there's an icon for Nero StartSmart, which is effectively a wrapper for the various components of your Nero 6 package. We reviewed the retail Ultra Edition, but you can also buy the PowerPack version which has enhanced DVD burning tools, such as the Nero Recode2 MPEG-4 encoder, for an extra £5. No doubt some OEM versions will also be bundled with new laptops.

At its heart Nero 6 is almost untouched, although the buttons have been given a Windows XP-esque makeover. To make life simpler you can toggle between Nero 6 and Nero Express 6, which is handy for inexperienced users who don't want to face dozens of options. One change that we noted is the addition of a virus checker to ensure you don't pass on viruses from one CD to another. Of course you still get the excellent Nero Toolkit as well as the InCD Packet writing software, leaving a handful of components which are mostly self-explanatory.

Nero BackItUp schedules back-ups, Cover Designer is for CD and DVD inlays, Wave Editor is for editing WAV audio files, SoundTrax helps you mix audio files and finally, Image Drive allows you to use ISO disk images as a virtual drive.

There's a great deal in this package and it's very fair value for money.

RATING: 8

PRICE: £47/£55 (EX/INC. VAT)
REQUIREMENTS: WINDOWS 98/2000/XP, 500MB DISK SPACE
CONTACT: WWW.NERO.COM