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I don't have a test-bench, so I can't-and don't-review new products by confirming or refuting their specs. But I do sometimes try out new products to see how they work; and if I choose to write about them, it's usually because I like them. Sometimes, though, I have to hold a product's feet to the fire.
I really wanted to like Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum, the latest version of CD-writing software from Roxio, nee Adaptec. It was previewed for me last year and is being promoted as a great improvement over its predecessor, Adaptec's Easy CD Creator 4, which is also the software most-frequently-bundled with new CDRW drives. (Hereafter I'll call the new one "5", and the previous version "4".) Then in February Roxio gave me the full-featured retail version of 5-not a beta-and a pamphlet called a Reviewer's Guide, in addition to the User's Guide documentation in the package.
In some ways 5 certainly is an improvement over 4, which I've used-and have kept updated by downloading patches-for almost two years. 5 presents a more up-to-date-- looking "skin" (that's youngsters' slang for the on-screen user interface) and it incorporates features that have become important recently, such as compressing .WAV (CD Audio) files into MP3 files, which raises the song-carrying capacity of a disk ten-fold.
But buyer beware. Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum's installation procedure is counter-intuitive and possibly disruptive. And OEMs and VARs and IT managers need to be aware that there is conflict between 5's important Direct CD function and DVD-writing programs such as Software Architects' Write DVD.
"Wace First, Verdict Afterward" That was the Red Queen's judicial procedure in "Alice In Wonderland." But perhaps she also worked on Roxio's development team, because when you go to install 5, the first thing it asks you to do is to un-install 4.
The Reviewer's Guide says it's "recommended" to do this, but in fact the installation will not proceed without it. And anyone who purchases 5 at retail will find nothing about this in the User's Guide. This runs contrary to conventional installation procedures.
Most apps that self-install from distribution disks create a new default directory for their .exe and other files to reside in. They prompt the user to either accept that...