14 DAY TRIAL // Just when I was thinking that UltraISO, MagicISO and perhaps PowerISO were the only headliners in the big CD/DVD image tools fest, another program from this family hit me. Now, let's get to it before it gets really cold, since the last version was released over 4 months ago.
But...what am I talking about here? ISOpen, of course! ISOpen is my next subject, and apart from that, a member of the CD/DVD image tools family. Here you have the details: version number 4.3.78, installation kit size 5.6MB, and the shape - a fully functional 30 days trial version, without a single limitation (yes, you can even create 4GB images and burn them onto DVDs!).
Before everything else, I must say the program's interface is a bit different from what I was used to. The icons are almost good, since there are some transparency issues that lead to jaggies in each one that you can find on the toolbar, you have two browsing panels - one for the image contents, and the other, called Windows Explorer(I wonder how did they get away with that...we all know why Windows Commander changed its name), for browsing your hard drive. Obviously, you can drag and drop files into both directions when you need to add or extract them to/from an image file.
The overall feeling is that the interface is well organized and easy to use, and not far from being an excellent one. Now, let's see what can be done with ISOpen!
ISOpen doesn't have any wizards, but you don't need such a thing here! This program is so easy to use that its name could as well change to ISOpad...
There are two project types that can be created - Data and Audio. After creating your new project, all you have to do is drag the files from your hard drive to the image. Once you're done, you can burn the image to a CD or DVD disc or save it into ISO or NRG format.
Don't worry about those two image formats supported for saving (Audio projects can also be saved to BIN/CUE), because ISOpen can open/extract/burn over fifteen image formats, and I think this is a great thing.
When creating Audio projects, you can also use Mp3, Ogg Vorbis and Wma files together with the good old Wav files. What else can you ask?
...oh, yeah, bootable discs! Don't worry, they're here! The Bootable CD menu can be seen by far, so no one can miss it.
At last, what about an Audio CD Grabber? Sounds good, I am sure of that. If you want to encode an audio CD, just choose the CD Audio Grabber option from the Audio menu, it's just as easy as that.
Audio conversion and CD/DVD rip to image files are the last two features that I will mention here. They are both extremely easy to use, and if you need more details, both are well described into the Help file.
In the end, I have to tell you that ISOpen behaved well, although it crashed on me once, and the fact that you get the full featured program to use for a month before deciding if it's worth buying should say it all.
The Good
ISOpen is small, easy to use and has a lot of features, its trial version is like a one month drive test with the car of your dreams, and the price you have to pay for it is very good.
The Bad
The only bad things about this program are its minor interface problems (for example, while I was using the Burn and Rip tool for the first time, I closed it using the program's close button from the menu bar...of course that the program closed, but this was not my purpose) and the fact that it doesn't have the Help file included into the setup package.
The Truth
The path has been shown, ISOpen's door is open now, and all you have to do is dare to enter!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
