H+H Software GmbH has released Version 9 of its Virtual CD suite. Like many other CD & DVD emulators, Virtual CD allows one to emulate one or more virtual optical drives; however, rather than just target allowing applications to be used without loading their physical discs, this suite creates virtual drives that behave just like physical CD/DVD writers. For example, to a disc recording suite, the virtual drive is seen as a CD/DVD Rewriter. This allows one to run test burns with their optical disc recording software without using any physical discs. If their test disc image turns out successful, this can then be used as a master for blank CD/DVD media.
Virtual CD supports up to 23 virtual drives with up to 200x the performance of a physical optical drive. Virtual CD images can be password protected or written to black media. Virtual CD features network support to allow disc images to be held centrally and mounted as virtual discs on client PCs. This can be very useful for sharing reference discs throughout an organisation without risking loss or damage to the original discs or regularly making back copies each time existing ones end up being misplaced or damaged. Virtual CD comes in a choice of a file server (FS) or a terminal server (TS) edition.
Version 9 offers the following new features:
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Microsoft Windows Vista certified drivers
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Up to 23 virtual CD/DVD burners
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Snapshot function for CD/DVD combinations
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Comparison Wizard for images and source CDs
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USB flash drive support for virtual drives
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Virtual hard drive with encryption, 64 MB and up
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Incremental additions to images
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Insert virtual CDs in any physical drive
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Improved support for CD-recording software
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All Toolbox programs optionally available over desktop shortcuts
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Improved API and scripting functions
Further information on Virtual CD, including downloadable demo versions can be found on its website.
