VirtualDrive Pro 14.0

Access DVD's and Blu-ray discs with and without an optical drive with this cool utility.

I bought a new Laptop earlier this year.  One of the mods I made was to remove the DVD drive and replace it with an SSD.  While this configuration does a lot for the battery life and speed of the system, it leaves me without an optical drive.  While external, USB drives always work, taking them with you isn't always the most convenient thing in the world.  In some cases, it's not possible.  That's why I'm glad there are things like Virtual Drive Pro. It’s a soft DVD drive for Windows.

VirtualDrive Pro has a unique burning capability that allows you to copy your CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs, games, and other programs to physical and virtual discs. VirtualDrive Pro allows you to convert original discs into a virtual CD (VCD), which plays in any one of up to 23 VCD drives. VirtualDrive Pro provides a quick and responsive playback without leaving any wear or tear on your disc drive.

Pros: Perfect for netbooks and sub-notebooks, easy to use, burns virtual discs.

Cons: Requires complex driver files (included with the install) for installation. Drivers may negatively affect overall PC performance.

Conclusion: Virtual disc drives are becoming more popular as optical disc drives are removed from standard hardware configurations. Its complex install process, however, may not work on all PC configurations, so its recommended that you try before you buy.