At least with Roxio easy creator, if you have an earlier version, you don't have to pay out xtra money for codecs so you can burn dvd. Roxio's been around almost since cd's & dvd's were matched up with computers. It surprises me that Nero is the more common burner app for windows. Perhaps it's better marketing & roxio toast (previously owned by adaptec) started off on the mac platform. Nero doesn't have the ability to treat a cd like a floppy as roxio's app can. Also arguably roxio's xtra utilities area arguably better. Roxio was a video/audio app maker before they purchased the rights to the burner apps. Why am I saying this. Once you've had experience with both, it's a matter of opinion but roxio seems to be the easiest & is the burner app innovator. Matter of choice.