Rating: 
Summary: Easy CD Creator 5.0 Platinum Appears to be Working Fine
Review: After I installed Windows XP Home Edition on my Dell 8200, I decided to update my 5.0 Basic edition to the Platinum edition. It appears to be working well after I installed it and its patches. However, do not restart the computer after installing the main program and after each patch as Roxio suggests or the program will not work. First install the main program, then xp_up_platinum.exe, then ecdc_v502c_up.exe. Finally, restart the computer.
Rating:
Summary: Great product - Especially for those new to CD burning
Review: True to the software's name, making CD's with Easy CD Creator 5 truly is easy. I use Windows 2000 on my computer and unlike many other who say to stay away from it if you have Win 2000, I have had no problems with the software. The catch is, you have to go to Roxio's web site and obtain 2 patches and the instructions. They don't advertise this as well as they should and I do feel that is pathetic on their part, but if you follow the procedures (very simple) the software installs in under 10 minutes without any problems. The thing I like most about the software is the ease of use. For a CD burning amateur who has not learned the CD burning lingo yet, it was very easy for me to figure out how to make CDs. I love the DirectCD application. It's very cool how it can allow you to use your CD-RW drive like a floppy drive. I also like the music creation programs. I had some MP3 files I wanted to put on a CD to listen to on a car CD player and without having read the instructions I was able to quickly figure out how to do it; the CD worked on the first try. I think I'm going to love the Take2 application which allows you to create an image of your entire hard drive for disaster recovery, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet. So far, the only thing I do not like about the software is that it does not seem to have as many advanced configuration options as other programs such as Nero. I'm usually one of these control freaks who can't leave well enough alone. To be honest though, I downloaded Nero and I did not know what half of the configuration options meant. If you are looking for a program which is easy to use and you don't want to spend time learning CD burning lingo, technologies, etc, Easy CD Creator is definitely worth looking into.
Rating: 
Summary: CD Burning for Dummies
Review: OK, so you just want to burn music CDs and save Data?? Then CD Creator Platinum 5 should be your #1 choice. In spite of what some of the previous reviews have to say, this product is the best and easiest format you can get. Make CDs, labels and save data simply and easily. If you want life to me more complicated than that, look at other products that do everything but shine your shoes, if of course you can figure out how to use them in six months or less. Roxio should still offer this product as the down and dirty option to the new and very complex products that they and other companies now offer. Find CD Creator Platinum 5 and buy it. It really does the job.
Rating:
Summary: one flaw
Review: I'm actually quite satisfied with this software, except..."DirectCD" (thier drag & drop feature) is buggy. I have CD Creator 4 on my old desktop and recently bought a laptop with CD Creator 5 pre-installed. Of course, the two versions are compatible when it comes to "burned" files, but all the files I had temorarily stored on a "Direct CD" disk were simply ERASED when I tried to access them on the new version!!! I've painfully learned my lesson and will never trust Direct CD for anything important again. You should burn all your files on rewritable CDs to make sure they're cross compatible and don't get lost!
Rating: 
Summary: Upgrading from 4.0 [A slight gain in performance!]
Review: I use this program PRIMARILY to BACK-UP data. With version 4.0 I could only BACK-UP my program files on an individual basis NOT the complete HARD DRIVE. But with ROXIO's "Easy CD Creator 5.0 Platinum" system I can BACK-UP my COMPLETE disk configuration with the help of the TAKE2 software. In order to use this without getting any ERRORS, I BACK-UP on to CD-R disks only. Trying to use the reusable CD-RW disks works OK the first time but results in ALL sorts of ERRORS on some disks thereafter. I have tried ERASING, RE-FORMATING, and TRYING TO RECORD OVER CD-RWs to NO avail. Consequently, I don't use the CD-RWs with TAKE2. We had a fire here in AUGUST, 2001 and our computers were disabled completely. The day before the fire I backed up my complete system using TAKE2 on CD-R disks. I replaced the computers the following day and used the RESTORE function on my TAKE2 disks. My operation was up & running within [2] hours. If I had had to reformat & copy files from CDs, it would have easily taken me 20 + hours to do the job and even then it wouldn't be as good as what TAKE2 did!! ROXIO doesn't reveal the limitations of the software in this system. You have to find out by trial & error. This is why I rated this system as a [3]. Paying closer attention to the way this system was developed and more intense debugging would have helped promote the use of this system. As it turns out, they [ROXIO] have left the door open for one of their COMPETITORS to this market with a BUG FREE SYSTEM!
Rating:
Summary: Works fine for me
Review: I'm running WinXP on a 3 year old Dell (450 Mhz, 384 MB RAM), and had no trouble installing or using this product. HOWEVER, if you don't read the XP instructions on the Roxio website prior to installing EZCD 5, I can just about guarantee you will experience difficulties. This product was released a bit early, in my estimation (the box I bought had a little sticker warning Win2K users to visit the Roxio site BEFORE installing, and the XP update was very slow in coming). One of the features (Take Two) flat won't work with XP, and Roxio tells you as much on their site (hence the docking of one star). I wouldn't trust any program other than Norton's Ghost to make an image of my hard drive anyway, so this is not a huge drawback, especially when there are quite a few improvements over EZCD 4 in this release. I can make video CDs that play in my DVD player, and the Soundstream app allows me to finally equalize the volume over the course of a CD when burning from MP3s. All in all, not nearly as bad as reported in the other reviews here (at least in my experience). It has a fairly straightforward GUI and my HP 9300 has no difficulty burning quality CDs. Once again, though--visit the Roxio site PRIOR to installing. You'll thank me later.
Rating: 
Summary: UNRELIABLE - even if your pc works with previous versions
Review: Don't Do it!My 500 MHZ Dell with 256 Ram with a built in Sony burner worked great with the Easy CD creator version 3.5 that came with my machine in 1999. So in 2001 when I decided to buy a more advanced software burner (that could do sound edits, set levels, convert mp3s to wavs etc.) I chose Roxio 5 because my foremost concern was compatability. Sadly - I discovered that this program makes CDs that are unreadable by many players (my Yamaha CD player, my Philips boom box, my Panasonic discman, and my Sony car stereo) To burn reliably, I had to adjust many options, turn off all of the advanced features, and burn on the most basic of settings at a low speed. (Turning it into a bad version of what I had before) After doing some research, i found out that this is a VERY common problem. (The biggest national chain regularly has people attempt to return this product as the result they warn people not to buy it) - If only I knew this before I installed it. Now some of these people who gave Easy CD creator 5 stars may not be working for Roxio. I am sure that it works great for someone. But you can't count on it working right for the majority of systems.
Rating: 
Summary: Windows XP Users Beware of the Product
Review: Easy CD Creator works fine on older versions of Windows. But don't try to use it on anything newer than Windows 98. The program freezes so badly it can't be soft booted. The CD's are ruined forever. Sometimes the drive won't even open, it just keeps burning for hours and can only be stopped by a hard boot. The "fix" for Windows XP from the Roxio site took 50 mins. to download on dialup and then it failed! My advice is to avoid Easy CD Creator until Roxio comes out with a better product.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Version 6
Review: Although not perfect, I've used Roxio CD/DVD 6 Platinum and Nero 6, and returned to using this product. This should also be called "Burning CD's for Dummies", it is THAT easy to use. I've also used it to burn VCD's without a hitch. If all you want is a fast disk copier and compiler, this is for you.
Rating:
Summary: one flaw
Review: I'm actually quite satisfied with this software, except... "DirectCD" (thier drag & drop feature) is buggy. I have CD Creator 4 on my old desktop and recently bought a laptop with CD Creator 5 pre-installed. Of course, the two versions are compatible when it comes to "burned" files, but all the files I had temorarily stored on a "Direct CD" disk were simply ERASED when I tried to access them on the new version!!! I've painfully learned my lesson and will never trust Direct CD for anything important again. You should burn all your files on rewritable CDs to make sure they're cross compatible and don't get lost!
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