Drive emulation has many advantages. You can use it to check the integrity of your disk image (e.g. ISO) files; you can avoid burning images to CDs loading them directly from your storage device; and by and large, loading times are slashed from what you could expect to get from your CD drive. DAEMON Tools has enjoyed a lot of support, being the number one choice for several years thanks to its light system footprint and distinct lack of strings attached. Unfortunately for the loyal DAEMON Tools users, things have changed a little in recent releases and more and more people are turning to Alcohol 120% as an alternative.

The problem lies in a small program called SaveNow, bundled with the DAEMON Tools Searchbar as an optional add-on for Internet Explorer. This spyware program has only become part of the most recent versions and can be avoided during the install process by de-selecting the option to include the Searchbar.

Controls for DAEMON Tools are dictated from the task bar, with a handy context menu that pops up when you click. Being a specific CD/DVD drive emulator, the options consist of choosing the number of virtual drives you want, where the image files for each virtual disk are located so that they can be mounted, and of course you can dismount images when you’ve finished with them.

With support for a wide range of formats, DAEMON Tools makes a good choice for users who travel frequently and would prefer to do so without lugging their CD and DVD library everywhere they go. It also makes a lot of sense for those who tend to scratch their CDs, because an initial backup will see them through unlimited uses without the danger of rendering the image unusable. Alternatively though, if you’re after a complete package with burning and ripping capabilities on top of the emulation, Alcohol 120% will be right up your street.